FOLSE’S WAR ON SYNTHTHETICS

AUTHOR’S PROLOGUE

Sometime in the year 2009, HTV Owner Martin Folse started getting calls from concerned citizens of the community. Others saw him at the hospital or in super markets around town.

Some were parents. Others were teachers. Even a few were kids. They all told him about this poison their friends were using which was causing great harm.

To Folse, it didn’t matter who they were; he took the time to listen. The well-known local reporter said he loves this area and takes pride in keeping his community safe. To him, those concerns were coming from his community family – even if he’d never met the individuals on the other end of the line.

Folse said he looks back and remembers seeing an older man at TGMC – a memory he’ll never forget. The man was at the hospital because his grandson had smoked synthetic marijuana, which caused him to bleed from the ears and brain. Folse said the grandpa’s pain was powerful. The old man was in tears at the time – not sure what was going on with a relative he dearly loved.

Folse met with the family later at his office, and he took to heart their struggles, which aligned with the calls he’d been receiving.

Their problem others in the community were experiencing had similarities and overlap – the emergence of synthetic marijuana and bath salts into local streets and the stranglehold the drug

had taken on some of the community’s youth.

There’s no way to ever tell the precise impacts of this battle, which still somewhat rages on today. But all law enforcement agree that hundreds of children were affected by the epidemic – either by impairment, hallucinations, severe sickness or in some cases, death.

Hearing those concerns, Folse fought back.

He started a self-proclaimed crusade against the drug and against all those who sold it to the community’s youth – a passion which still burns today.

His efforts were publicized by other media, though likely not enough and along the way, his knowledge for the topic and the players involved is admirable and undoubtedly impressive.

Local law enforcement are quick to state that Folse knows the major players in these cases by name – without needing notes or a cheat sheet. He can spout off the names of the accused one by one without hesitations.

Over the past two months, The Times’ Managing Editor Casey Gisclair and Rushing Media Owner Brian Rushing have spent time with Folse and have gathered a feel for what life has been like in his shoes for the past eight-plus years, while juggling ever-changing information about this topic, countless headlines (some unfair) and the ramifications that have come with it all.

Folse said he worked on the project while trying to keep his TV station prosperous in a tough economic time. He said he wants to thank his HTV crew for standing by him, while also crediting long-time assistant Joni Pitre for sending him scriptures on a regular basis.

Folse said the ordeal taught him who he could sit in a fox hole with and who truly supported him throughout his tough time.

In this piece, we will detail his efforts, while also providing new, vetted information about topics which have previously appeared within our newspaper.

THE FIRST TO KNOW

“We were targeting synthetics hand in hand when local law enforcement were getting an idea of what synthetics were coming in,” Folse said – a fact, which other law enforcement officials would concede without debate.

Folse said he gives credit to former TPSO Major Darryl Stewart and his narcotics strike force, who he said were behind the scenes offering information on the drug, which was still legal at the time all the information started pouring in.

Folse became a local sounding board for concerned citizens, simply because there wasn’t much authorities could do at the time to remedy the problem. It was legal.

The drugs started infiltrating local convenience stores around late 2008 – if not slightly sooner. They were packaged as bath salts and synthetic marijuana and the ingredient(s) which simulated the high obtained through marijuana were relatively unknown and thus weren’t against the law to consume.

That changed when Folse got to work chiseling away on the topic.

Hearing what the items were doing to area children, Folse started a series of broadcasts, some which were behind the desk on Bayou Time and others which were panel-based and offered voices to local lawmakers and law enforcement in the area.

In perhaps the most memorable ones, Folse himself went to convenience stores, challenging clerks and store owners who were selling the synthetics, asking them if they’d sell the drugs to their own children.

Folse said he remembers going to stores and being asked to leave the premise immediately – even at locations owned by people he’s known for years – some former school mates.

He joked that he is now limited to just a handful of places where he can get fuel, because he isn’t going to go to places caught up in unsafe activities.

“He’s always been a passionate guy,” said Cam Morvant, the longtime Lafourche Parish District Attorney, of Folse.

Morvant would know. He coached Folse at Vandebilt Catholic and has known him for practically his entire life.

Many don’t know, but Folse was a standout, four-sport athlete with the Terriers. He still holds some athletic records at the school to this day, including the school’s single-season interceptions record in football.

In 1978, Morvant bet Folse that he’d buy him a steak dinner at the Bonanza restaurant if he broke the school high jump record. Folse did set that mark, and the next day, the two got into Morvant’s vehicle and Folse got his steak. That day, Folse said, was the day that showed him that when Morvant gave his word, he meant it – which eventually loomed large when the Lafourche District Attorney vowed to help remove these drugs from local streets.

“When he sets his mind to something, it’s hard to get him off of it,” Morvant said. “But the beauty of it all is that it’s always being done with community interests in mind.”

It worked.

As more information became known (numerous broadcasts on HTV) and pressure was applied to lawmakers, which prompted them to apply pressure on other leaders, as well, the synthetics were eventually made illegal – a process which started in 2011 when then-Governor Bobby Jindal signed legislation, which continually evolved to include more ingredients as the drugs started to change.

Folse said Terrebonne District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr., then-State Rep Gordon Dove (now Parish President) and then-State Rep. Joe Harrison, all took Folse’s plea to Baton Rouge and initiated action.

On Jan. 26, 2011, Harrison offered high praise, saying that the proverbial snowball started rolling down hill when folks got wind of Folse’s broadcasts and information gathering.

“HTV saved lives because of these broadcasts,” Harrison said.

On Bayou Time, Larpenter added to that sentiment.

“I cannot thank you enough for spearheading this over the years to keep this on everybody’s minds,” he said.

The battle waged on, and authorities started to take the fight to the dealers.

In June 2013, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office raided several local convenience stores, arresting multiple suspects and seizing drugs and money on the scene.

Folse rode with other camera people, as Larpenter confirmed on a video recording that at Fast Stop and Go (near H.L. Bourgeois), more than 100 users came into the store in a three-hour period – all asking for synthetics. He added that some stores generated $200,000 in monthly income – a lot of that income from the sale of the synthetics.

On that day in June, many suspects were arrested, and most of them were of Middle Eastern descent.

“They are not only taking our money, but killing our children,” Larpenter said at the time. “Tie all this in. Cash, money laundering, racqueteering, money going to Middle Eastern countries. We are allowing a lot of terrorists into this country. … It’s not your mom and pop operation.”

Several of those suspects are awaiting trial and others have been sentenced to decades – if not a lifetime in prison.

Countless times on video presented by HTV, Larpenter repeated that sentiment, saying that a lot of the stores were either owned or operated by those who were of Middle Eastern descent. Other high-ranking officials said the same thing on record.

Folse relayed that information and presented it to the public, citing that the words were coming from the mouths of law enforcement officials.

Following the convenience store raid, Roberto Bryant with the Drug Enforcement Agency took it even farther and said that the arrests marked a safety issue here at home.

“There is a homeland security issue,” Bryant said to pool reporters at the June 2013 press conference following the raid, which was attended by The Times, HTV and other local and state media. “Terrebonne Parish is the location that we felt was the best bang for our buck.”

The battle waged on into 2014, though in the fall of that year, Folse’s role within it took a turn, and the whole story changed completely from the way it had previously been displayed in the press.

A VETERAN’S EXPERIENCE CHANGES EVERYTHING

The Road Runner Discount Store, located at 5505 La. Highway 311 in Houma was never raided, nor implicated during TPSO’s searches.

But testimonial evidence from several witnesses alleges that synthetics and other drugs have been sold at the location’s premises during the time when drugs were prominent in the community from 2009-14.

It is not clear whether the synthetics were yet illegal at the time of the witnesses purchases.

In our search, neither we, nor Folse have gathered information that says that the land owners, the lessee, nor the merchandise lessee knew of any illegal activity at the store. There is also no court case involving the store to prove that illegal activities were taking place. But several users have alleged that they purchased from clerks who were allegedly doing business inside the store’s walls, and outside behind the old car wash.

Since that time, the store has gotten new management and ownership and The Times has absolutely no reason to believe that the store is anything but practicing under complete legality at present and going into the future.

However, at the time of Folse’s broadcasts on synthetics, the store and the clerk within it during the incident we’re about to recap, were not legal to be serving alcohol or tobacco, according to state and local law.

Road Runner’s most infamous tie to our story began in Nov. 2014 when local social media started buzzing about a post from a friend of a local decorated veteran and neurosurgeon, Dr. Phillip McAllister. The friend was Kenny Barker, and he claimed in his post that the veteran was called a f—ing a—hole by a clerk at the store for a routine visit to buy some snuff.

Barker launched his post on Facebook – long before Folse’s reporting on the incident on HTV. Folse said media claimed he initiated the story, but he got it on social media.

The post generated hundreds of likes and shares, which caught the eye of Folse, a well-known advocate for local veterans and the United States military.

He said he wasn’t originally intending to report on the story. He was tied up at the time, grieving the loss of a friend’s mother.

Folse said he got a text message shortly after the incident from Dr. McAllister, asking Folse if he knew anything about the Road Runner store.

Folse then said he called McAllister and also Barker to get information on what had happened. He then sent a camera crew to Road Runner to tape outside of the store. He then talked to law enforcement officials, who said they had suspicions about the business. Folse obtained information from several high-ranking law enforcement officials before ever getting on the air.

Folse said his broadcast on that night was originally scheduled to be just about other proven convenience stores that had synthetic marijuana, but after getting the facts, he decided to cover the clerk-Veteran exchange, as well, though the two were intended to be displayed as separate stories – not in any way intertwined.

So he got behind his desk – like he’d done thousands of times before – and gave the story to the public.

In his videoed remarks from Nov. 2014, which have been replayed to The Times several times for vetting, Folse said on multiple occasions that the issue was not about religion, nor ethnicity. He added that he wouldn’t support any person who disrespected veterans.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black or any color,” Folse said. “If you disrespect veterans, I’m not going to your store.”

But the story didn’t play out the way Folse hoped in the court of public opinion.

Commenters alleged racism and bloggers picked up the story – headlines which still show up on a Google search of Fols’es name at present.

Folse said during the time the story was breaking, his lawyer made a request for store surveillance video, while saying on air that if he would be proven to be wrong, he’d apologize immediately.

Dr. McAllister also attempted to get the video through his attorney.

Both were told that the tape was unrecoverable, which didn’t allow the veteran, nor the clerk to be backed in the incident.

Folse continued on the broadcast by discussing the issue of synthetics at local convenience stores, relaying the words of lawmakers and law enforcement officers, which said that most of the stores that had been busted were run, leased or owned by those of Middle Eastern descent.

The clerk in the case of the Road Runner also was believed to be of Middle Eastern descent, according to the information provided by the veteran and law enforcement to Folse in his vetting before the broadcast.

Folse said in the broadcast that, according to his sources, “it is believed” that the clerk is of Middle Eastern descent.

We listened to audio from the broadcast and determined that Folse always referred to sources when commenting on the clerk’s nationality.

As the story generated steam, local print media – including The Times – worked stories, which gave additional details into the incident (some which have been additionally vetted and will be corrected later in this piece), while also detailing the efforts of veterans to boycott

FOLSE’S WAR ON SYNTHTHETICS

In November of 2014, veterans and others in the community protested their beliefs at the Road Runner gas station. In this week’s investigative story, we provide new information about that event.

FILE | THE TIMES

A woman shows a sign expressing support for veterans after a social media storm got picked up by local media and presented to the public.

FILE | THE TIMES