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Hom e

4 years in prison for New Orleans corruptionfigure with Nova Scotia ties

February 25, 2013 - 11 :17 — Timothy Gillespie

Racketeering claims reach into wilds of KemptvilleAaron Broussard arrived in a New Orleans court Monday morning, where his

35-y ear political career ended with a 46-month prison sentence for fraud

committed while he was president of Jefferson Parish, the most populous New

Orleans suburb.

Broussard, who must also repay $280,000, apologized "for bringing dishonor

to my position. I will pay for that dishonor for the rest of my life." He requested

he be sent to Pensacola Prison when his term starts on April 8.

Before the massive political corruption scandal that rocked all of New Orleans,

Broussard was most well-known for his shameful and histrionic display of

"crocodile tears" on national telev ision in the USA following the Katrina

disaster in New Orleans. It was charged by some that Broussard's actions in the

wake of Katrina caused tens of millions of dollars in damages to hundreds of

New Orleans properties due to avoidable flooding.

Broussard is among a long line of elected officials in New Orleans who were sent

to prison. Also in court was Karen Parker, his former wife and also a central

figure in the scandal, and other co-defendants. Parker, who collected over $1

million in illegal salary , was sentenced to 3 y ears probation and restitution of

$160,000 over 15 y ears. Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson also received 3 y ears

probation and was ordered to repay more than $250,000. He cannot practice

law for three y ears.

The pre-sentence report has Broussard's sentencing "level" at 28, but the Judge

Head said that he assessed it at 24, due to combining some serial bribes as a

single action. Prosecutor Brian Klebba told the court he would be satisfied with

a sentence of 46 to 57 months.

A federal grand jury ultimately charged Broussard with 27 criminal counts. In

an agreement with the government to avoid trial, he pleaded guilty in

September to two of them: conspiracy and theft.

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Broussard is a former law partner of Danny Abel, co-owner of the famed Trout

Point Lodge in Kempt, near Y armouth, which was initially named by New

Orleans newspapers, telev ision stations and online news sites as being co-

owned by Broussard and somehow implicated in frauds committed by

Broussard. Broussard also owned or co-owned with Parker and others several

businesses in Louisiana and Nova Scotia purportedly designed to manage Nova

Scotia tourism properties, including those surrounding Trout Point.

Broussard Uses His Public Office for Private Gain

The "factual basis" documents surrounding Broussard's guilty plea contains this

accounting: "Additionally , from approximately 2004 through 2010, Broussard

received monies, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, that were

characterized as, among other things, “retainers,” “consulting fees” or “finder’s

fees” with various contractors and vendors, all of whom were doing business

with Jefferson Parish during the period of time Broussard was the President of

Jefferson Parish. Moreover, Broussard was a majority owner in a holding

company which owned an investment property in Canada. Broussard received

income from this Canadian property . This property was partially funded by

indiv iduals and/or entities who were contractors and/or vendors doing

business with Jefferson Parish during the period of time Broussard was the

Jefferson Parish President."

Retractions

Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret, also co-owners and managers of Trout Point

Lodge, filed several defamation actions against New Orleans media, winning

retractions about the assertions of ownership by Broussard. Court records in

those cases show that Broussard was an owner of a smaller adjacent lodge,

which was marketed at times by the managers of Trout Point Lodge. Many of

the surrounding properties were also owned by figures familiar in political

circles in New Orleans.

Leary and Perret won a $47 5,000 defamation judgment against investigative

blogger Doug Handshoe, who is well-known in the New Orleans area for

investigative stories about area political and financial corruption. The attempt

by Leary and Perret to have that judgment enforced resulted in a federal court

in Mississippi vacating the award under prov isions of the SPEECH Act, which

became part of U.S. law in order to limit the practice of "libel tourism." The

Trout Point partners are likely to have to pay legal costs in that case exceeding

$50,000.

Leary and Perret, an attorney , have largely represented themselves in the

various court cases, but Leary has also corresponded with some participants

as representing the "Able Law Firm", with telephone contacts registered to

Trout Point Lodge.

Reporters as co-conspirators?

The court files in the series of defamation suits also reveals that reporters at

the Toronto Star and Halifax Chronicle Herald - who had written about Trout

Point Lodge in glowing terms - forwarded private emails from Handshoe to

Leary and Perret, in apparent v iolation of journalistic ethical standards of both

newspapers.

In recent months, Leary , Perret, Trout Point Lodge and other properties the

pair owned or managed were named as co-conspirators in a RICO (Racketeer

Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ) action brought by Concrete

Busters, a firm enmeshed in the larger Jefferson Parish political corruption

scandal.

Lawsuits falling like rain in Nova Scotia and New Orleans

Point Leary & Perret subsequently filed another defamation action against

Handshoe and his web host Automatic (Wordpress), naming the lawy ers in the

Concrete Busters and South Coast Today publisher Timothy Gillespie as co-

conspirators. That suit was then amended to leave Automatic as the only

defendant, with no co-conspirators.

Leary and Perret have also instituted a copy right infringement suit against

Handshoe for an alleged misuse of a Trout Point image on his web site.

Just weeks ago, Danny Abel filed a defamation suit against Handshoe and Anne-

Marie Vandenweghe, a former Jefferson Parish lawy er whose "whistleblower"

actions precipitated the charges against Broussard, Parker and other key

Parish officials.

Who is Randall Cajun?

Vandenweghe, Handshoe, Concrete Busters and the central figures of the New

Orleans political corruption behind the Trout Point law suits are now also

Website con str u cted w ith FastSite by PBN - Pr iv a te Bu sin ess Netw or ks pow er ed by Dr u pa l

A ll con ten t r espon sibility of Best of Nov a Scot ia On lin e Ser v ices

primary figures in the blog posts of "Randall Cajun" on the "Real Malice" blog,

purporting to "explore malice on the internet."

The blog shows an extraordinary knowledge of both the intimate details and

history of recent political and legal intrigue in New Orleans and the arcane and

technical nature of search engine function in display ing posts on various blogs

and web sites.

The blog appears to be designed exclusively to attack Handshoe and to

undermine the validity of Vandenweghe's "whistleblower" lawsuit against

Jefferson Parish. The blog blasts Handshoe for alleged anti-gay comments and

insinuates he has some complicity if the corruption scandals surrounding

prev ious clients. "This material appears libelous and defamatory and designed

to attack Handshoe and Vandenveghe's reputations," a Louisiana attorney told

SCT, say ing that finding the original author should be possible given modern

technology .

New Orleans blogger Jason Berry , of the American Zombie blog, say s that he

has tracked the location of Randall Cajun as close to Y armouth, Nova Scotia,

and that Cajun uses wireless Eastlink serv ice which includes the Kempt

wilderness. Randall Cajun was one of the commenters on American Zombie

recently , and admitted to being the author of Real Malice. Berry told SCT v ia

email that he believes the author(s) to be located at or near Trout Point. The

Lodge is open y ear-round, which would also allow for a guest there - or at one

of the nearby properties - to be the author. The Lodge is genrally the only

facility in the area open y ear-round. "Why would any one else from Nova Scotia

be commenting on New Orleans and Jefferson Parish municipal politics?" Berry

asks.

Jason Berry say s he tracked the IP address from Randall Cajun within in

minutes of his first comment. "He even admitted he was from Nova Scotia and

that it was his IP after I exposed it."

Randall Cajun, according to Berry , hasn't commented on American Zombie

since.

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