Kylie Gautreaux
April 26, 2017
Irma Mayet
April 27, 2017
Long suspected as the voice behind the ExposeDat website and being the person behind the Facebook pseudonym “John Turner,” Houma legal assistant Jennifer Anderson has acknowledged through sworn court filings that she was indeed the case.
Anderson and her husband, Wayne Anderson, a Houma police officer, were the subjects of a search warrant executed last year by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, which resulted in the seizure of their computers and cell phones. The warrant, issued by State District Judge Randy Bethancourt, was later ruled unconstitutional by the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal. It was issued in connection with an investigation sparked by a criminal complaint from Houma insurance broker Tony Alford that the site violated Louisiana’s criminal defamation statute.
The Andersons have since sued Alford, along with Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and Parish President Gordon Dove, along with their associated government entities, alleging violation of their First and Fourth Amendment U.S. Constitutional rights of free speech and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. The case is still pending before U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk, but without Alford or the Terrebonne Conservation and Levee District as defendants. The Andersons filed papers seeking to have allegations against Alford and the district dismissed, a request granted by the court.
“On or about July 2, 2016, Plaintiff, Jennifer Anderson created an internet website/blog called ‘Exposedat.’ Anderson created the website/blog to highlight and question the closely intertwined business and personal relationships between public officials in Terrebonne Parish particularly as they related to the awarding of then recent public insurance contracts involving Terrebonne Parish. The public officials discussed on ‘Exposedat’ included Gordon Dove, President of the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and Anthony Alford, parish in
surance agent and President of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District,” papers filed Monday in New Orleans federal court by Jerri Smitko, attorney for the andersons, state. “Jennifer Anderson researched and wrote the articles on Exposedat using publicly available information (e.g. court documentation and documentation from the Secretary of State). She also created a Facebook profile under the pseudonym John Turner to further promote the public’s awareness of the website. Wayne Anderson did not contribute to the articles on Exposedat or post or comment on the John Turner Facebook page.”
Neither of the Andersons were charged with any crime in connection with the blog or the Facebook page. The state’s defamation law could not be used, the judge ruled, because it exempts prosecution for statements made against government officials except in the most narrow of circumstances, which were not determined to have applied in this case.
The elimination of Alford has caused puzzlement among attorneys representing the other defendants.
Houma attorney Wiliam Dodd, who represents Larpenter, said he finds it difficult to see how conspiracy allegations against his client and other defendants can stand if the court has already allowed dismissal of claims against the initial complainant – Alford – and the public entity he is a part of.
Papers filed on behalf of Larpenter in the suit indicate a belief by the remaining defendants that the dismissal of complaints against Alford and the levee board should create a domino effect of dismissals.
“Because Plaintiffs’ claim that Mr. Alford is a public individual hinges on the fact that [h] e is the President of the Board of Commissioners of the TLCD, the criminal complaint submitted by Mr. Alford to the TPSO Sheriff, and the search warrant subsequently issued by Judge Bethancourt and executed by the TPSO Sheriff, were valid because they related to defamatory statements made about private individuals. Accordingly, the plaintiffs’ dismissal of Mr. Alford and TLCD destroys any right that the plaintiffs could have against the TPSO Sheriff, and is further evidence of the TPSO Sheriff’s objective reasonableness in executing the search warrant at issue,” Dodd wrote.
Prior to the admission, and the request that Alford and the Levee District be dismissed from the case, Houma attorney Berwick Duval had mapped out the reasons for Africk to remove him, although the arguments were determined as moot by the judge because of the plaintiffs’ request.
“Plaintiffs allege in a conclusory manner that the defendants acted in concert to conspire to deprive plaintiffs of their rights; however, there is no nexus mentioned between the individual defendants who “targeted” plaintiffs and (levee district),” Duval wrote. “There is no factual explanation of why TLCD would have any interest in harming plaintiffs. The theory of liability espoused by plaintiffs would lead to a public body being held liable for totally unrelated allegedly unconstitutional actions simply because its board president was an actor.”
Alford had filed a complaint with Larpenter’s office alleging violation of Louisiana’s problematic criminal defamation statute by “John Turner.” On the basis of that complaint detectives obtained information via court orders pinpointing the location of a computer involved with the posting of the allegations, on the website as well as a Facebook page belonging to a fictitious individual named John Turner. As a result of that information detectives converged on the Anderson residence in Houma and seized computers and cell phones in order to further their investigation. Smitko and other attorneys sought to have the warrant allowing the seizures, issued by Bethancourt, quashed. Bethancourt refused to do so, but the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal declared the warrant unconstitutional and the equipment was returned. The decision was based on Alford’s status as a public official due to his membership on the levee board, making him immune to victimization under the state defamation statute. No criminal charge had been brought against the Andersons; the seizures appeared to have been part of an aborted investigation.
While the state appeal was pending, the Andersons filed a federal action seeking a quash of the warrant on federal constitutional grounds, but it was denied. The federal action continues, however, in the form of allegations that the public officials conspired to deny their civil and constitutional rights.
“In essence, plaintiffs are asking this court to hold a public body liable because its president allegedly felt he was personally defamed concerning his own personal business activities that absolutely nothing to do with the levee district and then took action in his personal capacity in alleged retaliation,” the court papers filed by Duval state. “There is neither a single contention, nor can there be, that Alford used his position as president of the board of TLCD to further his alleged unconstitutional scheme. Specifically … this complaint must be dismissed …”
Naming the levee district as a defendant in the federal case, Duval alleged “is at best cavalier and at worst a ploy.”
The admission by Jennifer Anderson relieves a potential problem for her husband, which is the suggestion that he made allegations against his bosses – the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government and therefore Dove. The Houma Police Department is an entity that functions under the authority of both.
The court papers currently in play, however, clearly allege that the Andersons both state they were wronged by Dove himself.
“The same day that the Plaintiffs’ home was raided, Captain Duane Farmer and Detective Troy Boquet, members of the Houma Police Department arrived at the Plaintiffs’ home. Captain Farmer and Detective Boquet informed Officer Anderson that he was being placed on administrative leave indefinitely,” the suit alleges. “They also informed Officer Anderson that he was the subject of an internal affairs investigation for failing to uphold the law and for engaging in conduct unbecoming of a law enforcement officer. They then stripped Officer Anderson of his badge, his duty weapon, his law enforcement commission card and his marked patrol unit. The actions taken by the Captain and Detective were again plainly visible to all of the Plaintiffs neighbors and have caused embarrassment and irreparable damage to their reputation in the community … (Farmer and Boquet) acted under the direction of the Chief of the Houma Police Department, Dana Coleman. As Parish President, Dove is the Commander-in-Chief of the Houma Police Department. The decision to place Officer Anderson on paid administrative leave and open an internal affairs investigation on Officer Anderson was, upon information and belief, subject to the approval and/or consent and/or signature of Dove.”
Although Alford is released from the suit, he is still mentioned as taking part in a conspiracy between Dove, Larpenter and others in that they allegedly all “jointly accepted and agreed upon illegal plan as discussed hereinabove. Sometime immediately after a July 11, 2016 article … was published on the website that detailed the business dealings between Dove and Anthony Alford, Dove allegedly announced to the Board of Directors of Synergy Bank, a local Houma bank, that he was going to shut the Exposedat website down and that he was having subpoenas issued. Just three days later after the article’s posting, Anthony Alford lodged a criminal complaint.”
“Once Alford filed his complaint, Sheriff Larpenter wasted no time in initiating an investigation by his office by instructing Detective (Glynn) Prestenbach to immediately conduct an investigation. Prestenbach did as instructed. He met with and interviewed Alford. Prestenbach also subpoenaed records from Facebook, Inc. relating to John Turner, and within a period of five days he obtained information from Facebook relating to various IP addresses. Prestenbach then searched the IP addresses he had obtained and noticed that they were assigned to a corresponding AT&T account. Prestenbach then subpoenaed records from AT&T to identify the IP addresses that corresponded to the Facebook posts of John Turner. Prestenbach received the AT&T records on August 1, 2016 which identified the plaintiffs’ residence as the source of the Facebook posts.”
Smitko and Alford did not return calls asking for comment.
Tony Alford (right) at a meeting of the Terrebonne Parish Levee and Conservation Board, of which he is president, was removed as a defendant from a lawsuit filed by the creator of the ExposeDat blog and her husband, at the plaintiffs’ request. Alford filed a criminal complaint regarding the blog and a related Facebook page, resulting in execution of a search warrant at their home.
