Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. I'm Stuart Ammidon. Here with me is David Reilly. And today, ladies and gentlemen, we have Sheriff Bobby Gidreau in the house. How are you doing, sheriff?
[00:00:09] Speaker B: I'm good. Good.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Thank you for coming and doing this, man.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I had a busy day today. I was in Baton Rouge until an hour ago, and I flew in and
[00:00:17] Speaker A: you got here fast.
You got here quick.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Meet you at three. So I'm happy to be here.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Glad what you had going on.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Baton Rouge Sheriff's association meeting.
They're updating us on some things that we have to be aware of.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Ah, I gotcha. I got it. So just policy changes and things like that.
I understand. Well, so what we wanted to talk about today, we had Jesse Bellard on the show last week. I think that was last week, wasn't it, David? Yeah, last week, something like that.
And we're trying to understand the issues going around the jail right now.
So we had Jesse come in. He explained what he thought the issues were as far as funding for the inmates, being able to pay for it out of the parish budget. So I'm gonna say some things. You tell me if I'm right. Okay. So the parish pays the cost of inmates for their housing, Is that correct?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Okay, so. But. And that's different than the sheriff's department.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Okay, got it. And that money comes from mostly the parish general fund, correct?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Correct. Okay, let's break it down to state inmates cost.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: And local.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Local inmates cost. Yes, that would be very helpful. Let's talk about that.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: The Constitution in Louisiana calls for the sheriff to be the keeper of the jail. That means I'm solely responsible for the safety and the custody of inmates and staff.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: We have to protect the staff as well as the inmates. And parish government has the responsibility. They own the building, they own the jail.
Now, It's a very costly thing for parish government. I understand that. Yeah. And my heart goes out to him because, let me tell you, for a while, we had to send inmates to other parish sheriffs to hold him for us.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: We were out of room.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yes. My capacity is 244. And at times we had over 300.
And the fire marshal called the sheriff and says, okay, y' all gotta fix this, guys.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think Jesse said something about that. He was talking about how at one point, there's like 340. 340 or something like that.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, right now. Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Okay, got it.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: And so what happened Was every month the parish government had to send to five different parishes payment for holding our inmates.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: And these are local inmates.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Our local inmates. Okay, got it. And there's a reason for that. Because the state says, I can't take your state inmates yet. And I want to explain to you all how state inmates are produced.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: And why the state says I can't handle them right now.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: First of all, it was said that the sheriff calls Department of Corrections and asks for state inmates to come and be housed in our jail. That's not true.
That's a false statement.
Number one, when an inmate, a parish inmate is in our jail, goes to court and either pleads guilty to a felony or is convicted of a felony, after that, he is a state in me.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: The moment the conviction happens.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Or his plea of guilty. Yes.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's no longer.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: No, he's not a.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: No matter what the crime is.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Well, it's got to be. Yeah, it's got to be a felony. So that got to be a felon. Yes.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Okay, Got it.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: And listen, Paris government had a big, big expense when we had to ship inmates out. And I appreciate the times they did have the money to do it.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: And we couldn't have survived without parish government doing that. Now they can't do it.
They have no money. In fact, St Andrew Parish, as we all know, is on the brink of bankruptcy. And so I understand Jesse's wanting money from the sheriff. We have a.
We're fortunate. I mean, we've been good stewards of the taxpayers money.
We were able to accumulate and save money where we are.
And Jesse has asked me about a year and a half ago. Okay. And I don't blame him.
He asked me to give him $17 a day for. To feed the state inmates in the jail. In the jail. Okay. And the state law says that the state parish pays 350 a day, but that's for local and state. And it's not enough money to feed either one.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Let's think about it.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: You know, 350 a day to feed a state inmate or a local inmate making.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Jesse was telling us also, like the costs of housing minors is. Is insane compared to this. Right. So it's like 300 and something dollars a day.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: A day.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: That's crazy. That's insane how expensive that can be. And is that also an expense that's carried by St. Landry Parish? Like our parish pays that bill.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Parish government. Yeah. So anytime we make an arrest, okay. Yeah. Juveniles and they are sent by the Judge. To a detention center.
We have to send them out of Parish. I mean, we have to send them to. I think it's Houma near Morgan City somewhere. And they get $300 a day bill. Parish government does. Yes. While they're incarcerated there.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Wow, wow, wow.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: So let's go back to the state inmates. So what happens is once they plead guilty to a felony or found guilty, they become a state inmate. We immediately contact state Department of Corrections.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: We have girls that handle that. They do a great job of that too, by the way. And they tell DOC Department of Corrections, we have 75 inmates that need to be sent to you, all because they're state inmates.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: The sheriff doesn't have the authority and the power to say, you will take my inmates. I can't. I don't have that.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: They got to come get them.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: They have to come. They have to tell me when to send them. Okay, they'll come and get them. But they're going to say when we tell you we're ready for them. And they do it in a professional way. Yeah. You know, it's not. Nothing ugly and mean.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: But I have to wait. And while we're waiting, we're still getting pleas to guilty and convictions to guilty. The DA does a great job with that. Also, I want to tell you, he's trying to move the docket.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So I've heard about Chad. Like, he's being real aggressive getting these cases moved through.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: He set up a system he and I talked about when he first took office where we need to work together. And listen, this is a party for all of us in the criminal justice system.
The indigent defender board has to work with us.
And I'll tell you what happens if the indigent defender board doesn't work with us.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: No, I'm sorry. Can you explain what that is? I will, yeah. The defender board. What is that?
[00:07:35] Speaker B: The Indigent defender board is the board of lawyers that volunteer to represent people that are. They can't afford a lawyer.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yeah. And they're paid state appointed attorneys. Yes. Okay.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Wanted attorneys.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: And what happens is the indigent defender lawyers get paid to represent these poor people. Sure.
And they have a big responsibility to move that docket because if they don't come get the case files from the district attorney to go to court, then they're staying in jail for weeks, for months. We have some that been there. One that been in nine years.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Nine years.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Nine years. And we have another that's been there six years now. This is in the.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: In the jail.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: In the jail. That makes no sense to me. I get phone calls from parents, grandmas, wives, saying, what are you. What are you doing? Why are you still keeping.
And I have to explain the process. And they don't know. In honesty, they don't really know who's responsible for what. And it's not just the indigent defender board.
The DA has responsibilities to put these files together, assign them to an assistant da, or assign them to the defender board, and they put them in a box, and that's what he's supposed to do.
And the indigent defender lawyers are notified. Okay, we have these cases for you. Would you come get them and present them to the court?
In all fairness, and I don't want to be a rat, but.
And I'm going to list my faults. Our faults as well.
The indigent defender attorneys don't move quick enough.
So these people stay in jail for a long time. Yeah. Now let's move on to the next blame. I want to put blame on.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Oh, no, here we go. We're throwing it around today. Hold on.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: I want to say that I'm in. I'm not in the blame, but I'm in the system to tell you what the problems are.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: All right, so the next one we want to talk about, we have four judges.
Okay. In St. Landry Parish. We need five. Six would be better.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: To move the docket.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: To move the docket. And what happens? Each judge spends one month every quarter on a criminal docket.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: And he spends three months on a civil docket.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: You know what I think? I think they need to move that around, and they're gonna get mad at me, and that's okay. I'm just trying to listen.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: We're just trying to move the docket. Let's go.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: I'm trying to free my jail and free families. Let me tell you something. This is hard on the family.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: They can't bond them out. Any of your defender lawyers? Not gonna see him. So what's happening? They staying in jail. They're stagnant, the judges, in my mind. And maybe they have the solution they're working on. I'm hoping. I'm saying that. I hope they do, but I don't see it.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: So Jesse talked about this system that had started relatively recently. It was a partnership between the DA's office, the criminal defense attorneys, or, like, the. Like the appointed attorneys. And I can't remember who the third party was. I think it was the judges where they were Trying to identify early on, like first time offenders, non violent offenders, to just get them through faster.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: And so, but what you're talking about would not be affected by a system like that. Like you're talking about people who are repeat offenders or no violent offenders.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: No, they would be, they would be affected by it because the indigent defender that don't come, and I can tell you of two of them, I won't name anybody.
Okay.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: That's for payball content. We'll name names in the paywall episode.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: I want, I want to get at least two votes from this next year.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: The indigent defender lawyers, I can name two and I'm not that had five and six crates, boxes three foot long by two feet wide of cases that they did not pick up to present to the court to start their process in the system.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: But those cases were assigned to them.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: So I can relate to this. So I've had friends of mine in the past who have had.
I'm a pastor of a church. Right. We got all kinds of things going on.
So I've had people who have had legal issues come up. They've been assigned a public defender and then their family tries to get in touch with the public defender. And it's near impossible. It's near impossible to get in touch with them, to receive contact. And that's here and that's in our parish. That's personal. So I have anecdotal support for exactly what you're saying.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Yes. And so. And what happens is the defendants and inmates in jail try calling, try calling their lawyer. Yeah. And we keep a log of when the indigent defender lawyer comes in and meets with the inmate. And when the, when the defendant calls, tells us, I'm trying to get a hold of my lawyer, he won't come. He won't call me back, or she won't come, or she won't call me back.
And there's not a thing the sheriff can do other than what I'm doing right now, sit before a camera and a microphone and tell you, I've been in this business for 51 years for
[00:13:20] Speaker A: St. Lance, your parish.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: I've been a state trooper for 27.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: And I've been sheriff for 20. Okay.
And I can tell you where the issues are. But a lot of folks, and I love these people. I mean, these are the judges. And I bet they say, whenever they're going to see this clip, why did they do that? Because I want it out. I want you to do your job. I'm doing mine. Let's all do our job. This criminal justice system is killing us. It's killing the sheriff. It's killing the families of inmates that are in jail and their moms, their wives, their husbands, grandparents that raised their grandchildren.
They've been in jail for sometimes years.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: So let me ask you this question, Sheriff. In terms of jail size to population, okay, Are we correct? Like, is our ratio, Right? Is our small? Like, where are we?
[00:14:17] Speaker B: We're way below.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: We're way below.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: Yeah. In fact, when this jail was built in 1980, I remember when it was built, they had 140 beds.
And when they decided to double bunk, they put. They built another bunk in the same cell to have two. So now they were doing 280. Okay, all right. That, that was a big help. This is 20 years ago.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Okay, so I'm sorry, I have another question. Does that mean is the population of Saint Legra Parish going up or is the crime rate, prosecution rate going up?
[00:14:53] Speaker B: I think both.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: It's both.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Okay, let me tell you what's happening also in addition to those two things.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:14:58] Speaker B: So we have these smaller police departments now that are doing a better job of enforcing the law.
And they're going to academies. They're chiefs. Not all, but a lot of like Yunus Opelousis and Sunset Ornoville. They have chiefs that are progressive, that know how to investigate a crime.
And now they're teaching their young policemen to make case reports, case files.
Their arrests are coming in now and helping my jail to fill up.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: So part of what you're saying is like the prosecution and the pursuit of crime is getting better. We're actually bigger, getting people more inmates who have broken the law. We're getting them correct as opposed to before, when you're saying it wasn't really happening as effectively as it could have.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Well, it probably was happening as effectively as it could have at the time.
I remember years ago, when I was a young trooper, we had deputies in Saint Landry Parish. I'll say, because I worked with them on cases that didn't know how to read and write. These older deputies. No, no, it's true.
These deputies were patrolmen. And there was a fight, they'd send two cars there to break it up.
And you wouldn't see a domestic violence arrest, you wouldn't see a fight. And disturbing the peace, they talk it out with them. And through no fault of their own, the sheriff in Saint Land repairs either Cat Doucet, Adler Ladue, or in the early days of Howard, now Howard Zorang brought this standard up. He really did.
He started hiring people that went through the academy and knew how to make arrests, write reports.
Having said that, our criminal justice system is too small. We outgrew it. The crime has grown all around us and it's not getting any better.
Not better.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: So you would attribute. So you're saying it's kind of everything. Population increase, crime rate increase, and also quality of investigative work.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: So all three things are increasing at the same time.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: And all three things are adding more people in the jail. Yes, on a regular basis. Okay, got it.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Now we have 11 municipalities or 12,
[00:17:14] Speaker A: I think, I think it's 11, 11.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Now, I got to tell you, six years ago, I was frustrated with a lot of the smaller communities that I'd get complaints. Okay. The people from Melville, Washington, Leonville, maybe they'd come to me and say, hey, Sheriff, I need some help.
Yes, what is it?
And they tell me they made complaints through their own local police department.
And not a lot of times nothing was done.
So we'd have to go out there and work their, their case issues. Yeah. And meanwhile, we still have ours. So I made this decision. I said, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to go and visit each mayor and council members and tell them that they need. It's a duplication of services right now. I said, y' all need a contract with the sheriff.
Abolish your police department. That's a hard statement to make, especially for an elected chief.
And I tell the mayor and the council, abolish your police department. There's a three step process to that cut. Contract with me for the budget that you're paying your policeman now and I'll come and police your town. We'll kick the ant pile. There's no doubt.
Okay.
And I mean that in a positive.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: No, I do, I do. I understand. I just killed a bunch of ants in my yard yesterday. So the analogy played great. I got it.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: They call crazy ants. I have two.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: So.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: And what happens is the police departments, either the chief is either or the policeman, or either kin to, married into, went to high school with or grew up with the guys committing crimes. And it's hard.
They can't go there and say, hey man, we grew up together, you're gonna put me in jail. The sheriff deputies, we're gonna go and kick the ant pile. And that's what they need in a lot of these small towns because of the drug activity, because of the illegal drug activity. We will get more on that after a While. But. Okay, and let me tell you what the result of that was.
The mayor and council said, no, we want to keep our little police chiefs, okay? It's a duplication of services.
I'll tell you one more duplication of service, okay?
911 communication board. Well, I'm losing votes by the minute here.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: You did this. You're going to announce at the end of this podcast that you're not running for reelection.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: So. And I love these people at 91 1. My brother was an employee there as the address for the parish until he passed away two years ago.
And the 911 Communications Board does this.
It's a great concept, but it's another duplication of services. And this is how it's a duplication.
You call 91 1.
A dispatcher at 911 picks up the phone. What's your emergency?
That person is going to tell you, I need a policeman here. We had a domestic violence. We had a shooting. We had a stabbing, or we have a fire.
And that dispatcher at 911 has got to get all that information down. I mean, you know, who is this? Can you tell me where the suspect is now and who's hurt? Well, they spend a couple of minutes on the phone and they hang up.
911 does have to do what?
[00:21:01] Speaker A: They got to call the sheriff. That's right. They got to call the. Whoever the local person is. They got to get in touch with my dispatch center.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: And when my dispatcher says, hello, Sheriff's office, that dispatcher at 911 has to repeat and it's a delay.
And listen.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Yeah, listen, I've experienced this, too, man. Like you're not. You're not. I've called 91 1. I've given my information to them on the phone. They connect me to whoever it is, and then I say the exact same thing again. Like it's this is this. I identify with exactly what you're saying. Yeah, I've seen it.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: And this is my plan. This is what I would like to do.
I'm about. If I want to be more efficient, we need to do a better job of getting along and working together and making this criminal justice system more efficient.
So my decision is this. Jude Murrow is a fantastic guy. Jude morrow is the 911 communications director. Okay. All right.
He does a good job. And. And I always told my staff this, and I told this to some of the council members. When Jude Murrow decides to retire and hang it up, I'm going to make a big push.
I'm going to Make a big push to put 911 communications under the sheriff's responsibility so we can eliminate some of that duplication.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: And I'm not saying we need to fire anybody. I'm saying we need to put it together.
My dispatch center at the new complex is big enough to address all that we can address. Have people answer the fire phone. We can have people answer the police phone. We can have people answer traffic actions for state police more efficiently and quicker. Sure, that's what I want to do.
[00:22:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: I mean. I mean, it all sounds great to me. I like the idea of efficiency in government, Dave. Efficiency in government. You like that? Amen. Amen.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Let's make it happen.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Let's go. Let's go.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: I may not be around to see
[00:22:58] Speaker A: it, but one day we got to target.
So now let's get. Let's figure out the jail situation.
Can I ask a question? Go ahead, David. Circling back.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: So there's. I don't know if I'm saying it right. The indigent attorneys or the defenders.
So we've said that, and you've said they need to basically do their job. Right. They've got these bins full of cases.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:20] Speaker C: What would that look like? Does that just mean, like, hey, they need to get up early and work as fast as they can and start working through this.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Come get your box of stuff, go through it, and go see your people that's in that jail.
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Give them hope.
Give them a date. Talk to the district attorney. We want to go before the judge and get this case moving, because if you don't do that, that poor individual in jail is going to stay there. I don't like that.
Not only does it hurt us in our operation, it defeats the purpose of trying to have justice. That's not justice.
Jesus says what?
Visit me in jail.
We need to do a better job of handling our business.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Well, a quick and speedy trial.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: That's a constitutional piece. So what's the deal with.
I mean, part of me is like, okay, well, then how do we apply pressure to the system?
How do citizens apply pressure to a system that's overloaded like this to make sure that things are moving through the docket? What's the mechanism? Because I can think, like, so now I can reach out to you and get in touch with you. I can get in touch with Jesse Bellard. I can get in touch with congressmen. Like, I can. We can call them. I don't know who to call for a defense.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Congressman can't help you.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, what do you do here?
[00:24:38] Speaker B: Well, we have to be able to convince our district attorney we have a senior judge in this parish of four judges. Okay. We need to convince. And I think he is convinced. I'm not gonna name anybody, but I think he knows that they need to increase the load. The workload of what they have now, one month every quarter of the year is not enough.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: And that's within the district attorney's purview.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: No, no judges.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: That's the judges.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: So you. We have to appeal directly to the judges.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Well, we have to sit down and talk to the judges and say, listen, let's have a meeting with a whole judge. Let's have a meeting maybe with just a senior judge and say, this is our. I tried to do that, and I want to do it again, but I'm just one.
But I have a good argument. I mean, I want to move this docket.
The district attorneys is doing. They're doing what they need to do, and as quick as they can.
Excuse me. I believe that. Okay. So. So the injured defender lawyers. Now, this is a poor parish, and we have a lot of people that are dependent on the injured defender lawyers.
And so if they don't go see their. Their client, that. Kate, they're going to rot in jail. I have a list of all the inmates. I made a list of all the inmates that have. In the jail. We have 21 or 22 indigent defender lawyers. Okay. And I've got the record of how many cases each one has.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Some of them have 16 pending cases, some have four pending cases.
Some have 12, 15.
Some have one or just two. Some of them are doing their job, but the majority need to get off that can.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: So my question. Next question is, is that public information, that list?
Yes, because I'm paying for that list. Right. I mean, public defenders are funded by taxpayers.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I would say. Yes.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So I would want to know that list. I would want to have some degree of ability to hold a public defender that I'm paying. Right. Like, I would want to have some degree to hold him accountable.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. And I'll tell you this, that I do know. In the recent days, our senior judge has made a move to the defender.
There's a lawyer that's the supervisor of the lawyers.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Okay.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: I don't want to name him, but it's public record. But.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: I can tell you that the judge has said we need to do a better job bringing these cases up.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: And now I think the judge has to do this, too, when he's on the bench, and the defendant comes up for the fourth or fifth time in recent years.
And the defendant, defendant lawyer says, judge, I'm not prepared. I need more time. Well, you had four years.
That judge needs to say, be prepared. In three days, we're going to come to trial.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Yeah. It seems like really what we're talking about here is justice system reform in St. Landry parish. Like, that seems what we're really chasing right now.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: And I would be happy to participate in that.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: I can tell you I recognize the problems and they may point out mine. I hope they do. I hope they point out the issue they have with me, because I want to fix them.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: I am not perfect.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: And that's part of, like, what David and I are trying to do with this podcast and creating these media entities. What we're trying to do is say we want to build systems in St. Landry parish that kind of cut through the bureaucracy, help us to understand exactly how government works so that we can.
We love it here. We live in St Landry parish. We live in Opalousas. The business is here that we're a part of. We love it here. We want to be here. We want it to work well.
Right.
There's a sense. So we're Christians, obviously. I think you're a Christian, too.
So in Christian theology, there's an understanding that the government, in a sense, belongs to us, by the people, for the people. Right. The government's ours. Okay. So understanding that we need to steward it well. And part of the endeavor that we're making with this production and other productions is to understand it and begin that stewarding process and try to bring other people along with us. Try to say, hey, guys, we think we figured out how to work through this. Well, which is why I have so many questions for you about the process and the way that it looks and all those things. So this is very helpful. So thank you. I appreciate that.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: You're welcome. We take an oath of office. We swear that we're going to uphold a law in the Constitution of the state of Louisiana and the United States.
Let's just keep that. Let's keep that honest.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Let's go.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Let's do our job.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: And I had a TV report, and I got it. I got one of those short, funny things I got to tell you.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: It's got to break the seriousness out of here.
I don't know. It was about nine months ago, TV 10 sent a little new reporter in to do an interview with me. Excuse me.
Regarding an Arm robbery we had. Okay.
She's new, and she's setting up. I'm sitting at my desk and, you know, I'm waiting for her to set up the camera across the desk. And she looks at me and she says, sheriff, I need to ask you something. I said, sure.
She said, I don't mean to be ugly, but she said, I heard you're pretty serious.
Well, yeah, I guess. She said, I heard you don't play.
I said, you know what? I quit school because of recess.
And she said, what? Oh, no, you're joking. I said, yeah, I am joking. I didn't quit school because of recess. But no, the point is, let's play when we can play and let's work when we can work.
I consider myself a leader. I'm not a follower, and I've always been that way, even with state police.
I went through the ranks, did the things I needed to do. I have two sons that are state troopers, and they love what they do.
And we have to be leaders, because just like at my office, I have 300 people working for me.
I have to hire people that were truck drivers, that were cement truck drivers, that were farmers, that were stock boys.
I have to hire. That's my phone.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, okay.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: And my wife used to tell me I'd get angry and frustrated sometimes, and I'd explain to her at night, I don't know what I'm gonna do with these guys. They don't understand.
She said, let me ask you something.
These people you complaining about, she said, what did they do before they were policemen?
I said, well, they were farmers or they were a welder.
She said, you've been doing this for almost. At the time, almost 50 years, and you know what you're doing. But a lot of these folks you're hiring don't know what to do. And that's so true.
That's when the good Lord said, you know what? I got to be more patient. And I am much more patient.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Well, you might be more patient than me.
I want to see things done.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: So let me.
If we were going to circle back and try to understand, what is the solution? So right now, Jesse says, I'm only getting $3 and something a day.
What is the solution to that? So you said earlier that they asked for 17, and you were like, take it. Let's do 17.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: That's where we stopped. Right?
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So what happened? Why is this. Why is the hole still there?
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Well, because I asked Jesse in order to be a good. I don't. Jesse's reputation with handling public money is not the best. And I recognize that, and I'm sorry to say that, but it's the truth. We're on the brink of bankruptcy. And I told Jesse Bellard 18 months ago, if you want me to pay $17 per inmate per day, I want to help. I have the money in my system to help.
But you gotta give me receipts so I can show my auditor. A legislative auditor. I have a chief financial officer that is a cpa, and she's gonna demand, and I'm glad she does. Receipts.
The legislative auditor in Baton Rouge is gonna get my audit report.
Where are your receipts? I can't just cut a check every month to parish government for 10,000, 12,000, 15,000.
What is this for? I can write in a little comments right here. Inmate food. Where your receipts I have to have.
Now, we could have avoided this suit he filed against me if he would have said, I'll get your receipts to you.
It's been almost two years now.
Now, I understand that he wants to settle this.
You still got to give me my receipts. You. I'll be happy to settle this, but I still need receipts.
And that's what we are.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: So what does that look like receipts?
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Does that seats for the food that is costing him? And he did an inflated cost. And I got to tell you, see, a lot of things were told.
I watched the interview with him, but there was a lot of things that were not told. That's the most important thing for me is that.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: You mean the interview he did with us?
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Things that were not said. And you did not hear him say, well, the sheriff wanted receipts, and I'm not giving it to him. I wanted receipts. Okay. I need.
I need receipts. Yeah. And we would not be in this fight, and I call it a fight. It's truly. It's causing bad feelings, you know, on both sides.
And people he tell things to, they believe a lot of the things that are not really true. Not true. So I'm trying to do what I need to do to explain the truth.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Well, this is why we wanted you on the show. Like, we don't want to.
What I want is for the sheriff's department and the parish president's office to work together. You know, like, that's part of what I'm really chasing, is that everybody's.
Because again, to go back to us being stewards of the government, citizens being stewards of the government. We want government efficiency, like you were talking about before. Like, we need. We need to get the cases off the docket. We need everybody working together. And so that's, you know, cards on the table. That's my long term hope and goal here, is that everything gets sorted out and we're able to just move forward.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: And unless things change, unless the judges in the defender's board, the sheriff and the DA get together and say, let's move this forward. Yeah, nothing's going to happen.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Now, that seems like common sense to me, Sheriff. Like, that seems like real common sense. All these folks should be talking to each other, not siloed off doing their own thing. Am I wrong here? Like this Seems like you're right. It's all a part of the justice system.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: I agree with you.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: So why doesn't that happen?
[00:35:53] Speaker B: People want to do it their way. And Jesse, I'm sorry, Parish president says I don't have the money to do it. Okay, all right. And I get it. But cuts could have been made before you got to this line in the sand.
There are things. Let me tell you something. When they parish government hired two guys to be pet detectives or investigators for the animal control, you know what their salaries were?
$75,000 each.
Now, I don't pay my detectives and I have a bigger budget than him.
75,000. And I found that as amazing. I said, wait a minute. How secretary, a bookkeeper. That's not a CPA. 90,000.
You gotta start realizing the cost. Vehicles for people that maybe shouldn't have a unit, a vehicle.
Let's talk about this.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: So Jesse's argument last time was the reason that the budget is in trouble on a parish level is because of what he called mandated expenses. But you're talking about things that don't sound mandated right now.
You're talking about. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here. Again, we're learning as we go. David and I are. We're wanting to try and understand this more. So help us flesh this out.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Mandated expenses have been here forever.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:37:29] Speaker B: So the district attorney, the parish government mandated by the constitution to give the district attorney so much for his budget.
Parish government is mandated by the constitution to give the judges so much out of the parish government's budget.
The clerk of court and the registrar, voters. And there are mandated expenses that have been here.
So it's not the mandated expenses that got us in the situation we're in. That's my opinion. There are a lot more things that could have been done. I would have done it differently, but I'm not the parish and I don't want to be the parish president.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't want either of your jobs. No, we're just so. It matters a lot to me who has that job.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Yes, it does. I don't want it.
I'm going to be honest and fair.
It didn't help that the sheriff had 70 inmates in other parish jails throughout the state.
And by the way, that are still.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: Oh, you're talking about that expense.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: Yes. Okay, I understand parish government's expense to these other sheriffs. In fact, when he quit paying them, he still owes around, I think it's over 300,000 to sheriffs. And I was with them today in Baton Rouge. I mean, I see these guys and they know they have the same system I have. Parish government pays the bill for inmates that they transfer out.
And they didn't do. They didn't tell parish government, tell the sheriff to come get his inmates because you're not paying us. They called me and said, sheriff, I'll hold them if you need me to. But he said, it's costing me money. And I tell them, no, you gotta, you know, you have a business to run just like I do.
Be a good steward of the taxpayers money. You can't just do that.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:39:25] Speaker B: And I'm going to tell you one more thing that I think is very important that y' all didn't hear about.
We have a crime lab, a criminal laboratory that all the sheriff use and city police use in Acadiana in your Iberia.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: New crime lab.
The old lab was outdated.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: And that does, what is that? Like DNA forensics?
[00:39:53] Speaker B: They examine evidence that we send to them to prepare for trial.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Okay, gotcha.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Okay.
Fingerprinting, blood type, you know, drugs. We have to identify drugs. When we make an accusation that you had fentanyl, we got to be able to prove that.
So the old crime label was out of whack.
So they built a new crime lab and kept the old one going.
And when they built the new. When the crime lab in Iberia built a new crime lab, they said, okay, every participating law enforcement agency in the parish are going to have to contribute to help us.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: You got to pay.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: No, my share, not mine, I didn't have. Parish governments had to pay their portion.
City police, like Appaloosa had to pay their portion. Eunice had to pay their portion. Port Barry. I mean, these little communities didn't have a big bill, but Parish and St. Andrew Parish's bill was sent and it stayed on the table for two years.
And I would wonder, why didn't this case come up? Why Are we sitting on what's happening with the DA's office?
My detectives would tell me the crime lab is not examining our evidence. Well, why not?
And he was explained to me why.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: Oh, dang.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: That they would. They put us on a back burner.
Because parish government here did not pay the $84,000 one time payment to the crime lab.
I said, well, that didn't make any sense. They're going to hold up law enforcement cases, crimes that need to be prosecuted, murder trials and armed robbery and burglaries.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: And.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah, so I called the crime lab, and I'm on the board of the crime lab.
I went to the next meeting and said, what's. What's the story? God, I was in a blind about parish government not paying their portion.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: This was two years ago.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: He said, no, this was recent.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Oh, this was recent two years ago.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: He.
The bill came without.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Oh, I see. Got it.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Because their administration doesn't tell the board members who owes the money.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: I understand.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: Until we ask.
So I said, why aren't our cases. I have. I have a murder trial that needs to come up and is being.
Somebody's sitting on it. That concerns me, the director. Very nice people told me, sheriff, you're not getting your stuff examined until we get our portion of what the cost is.
Parish government didn't send it. I said, oh.
I said, I'll pay it.
My department.
I said, I'm gonna pay it. Paris Goodman didn't have any money, and I'm not gonna rely on their problem to solve our issues with the crime lab.
So I went the next day with the check from my office for $84,000.
And I said, this is St. Landry Parish's share from my budget.
And they started cracking on the cases.
That's ridiculous.
Why not?
If you don't have the money, come tell me. Two years you're going to not tell me that you didn't pay it? Because I knew they were broke.
But you bought two $90,000 vehicles, you paid your pet detectives $150,000 a year, and you couldn't pay an $85,000 crime lab portion? One time payment. Not every year. One time.
And that upsets me because somebody's not wanting to work with us.
You got to give me a break here. You got to tell me what the problems are so we can work together to solve them. As I previously mentioned, we wouldn't be in this suit.
Even parish government was surprised. The council members were surprised when I went to a meeting and told them that I was being sued and they didn't know anything. They didn't know that I told Jesse, I need receipts.
A couple of members said, what do you need? I said, I need receipts to be
[00:44:24] Speaker A: able to, you know, verify your expenses.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Verify the state inmate expenses. So they didn't have a clue.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: So talk to me about this in the same way that you would say to a municipality, hey, let me contract your police force. Just contract with us. We'll take care of it.
Could we do the same thing. Could you do the same thing with the jail and just say, hey, we're just gonna. We're doing the jail now? No, no.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: Because the Constitution sets it in. The Constitution that parish government owns the building.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: But all the old west movies I watch, the sheriff's in charge of the jail. You know, like, come on.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: I am in charge of the jail.
They have to follow my lead and my orders when it comes to nursing.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: But you're talking about the facility.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: The facility. The building belongs to parish government.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: I understand.
[00:45:14] Speaker B: They are responsible for the upkeep and the maintenance, and that's one of those mandatory.
[00:45:18] Speaker C: Mandatory?
[00:45:19] Speaker B: Well, it's mandatory in this sense.
Ten years ago, the parish taxpayers approved a jail maintenance, an operational tax payable to Paris government. Payable to Paris government.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: Parish jail maintenance and operational expenses. That's what the tax was called. Okay. It generates 280, $850,000 a year.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Yes, that's right. Jesse was talking about this. Correct. I remember this.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: And they would not.
I mean, just back up. They could not pay for locks on the third floor of the jail. Cell doors we had escapes.
And the maintenance on the jail has not been done. The roof had been leaking. The water came down to brick mortar. Made it wet and soft. And inmates would break a piece of metal and scrape and scrape between the blocks and kick out the block. Yeah.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: This was the three guys who got out, like, a year ago.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: I said, we have $850,000 in maintenance and operational money, and y' all can't paint, fix the roof.
We had 10 locks on doors. I have the fitted pictures of them.
I said, this is ridiculous. That's the safety of my. My employees and the inmates themselves.
Imagine 300 inmates busting out and getting to the control panel and opening all the doors to the jail.
That's why I said, let's all do our job, you know, because it's going to make it safer and easier. Okay? And I can't.
I don't seem to be able to make people understand it's got to be done.
It's crazy.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like there's an intentional division of labor as far as government goes on a parish level, like the. As far as parish manages the building, sheriff's department supplies the personnel. Am I understanding? Is that correct?
[00:47:33] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: Okay.
But, I mean, at the same time, I appreciate division of powers, but at the same time, it seems like.
[00:47:41] Speaker C: But that's the case in.
Correct me if I'm wrong, the situation with the sheriff running certain things and the parish running other things within the jail, that's. That's true of all parishes, correct?
[00:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: No, it's the same thing. In Louisiana. We have 64 parishes. And let me tell you something. I had to spend. I did it.
I had to spend $380,000 out of my budget to put a machine on the first floor and everybody. Because of the contraband that was going up into the jail.
We had deputies bringing contraband up, not just parish employees. We had inmates bringing contraband up. Because there was no system in place, Parish government couldn't buy or wouldn't buy even the handheld wands that wouldn't get the stuff that they stick in there.
Body part.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:48:39] Speaker B: So I invested.
I invested almost $400,000 in a machine.
Now, my rule is I make the rules because I am the keeper of that jail. And that means parish government employees are not going upstairs without going through this machine. The nurses are not going up without going through this machine.
And I got some heat from Jesse from parish government about that. I said, I don't care.
We have to stop the flow of contraband into the jail, into the jail. And it's coming from. It's not just.
It's deputies that were doing it as well. Talking about jailers that we had to fire.
In 20 years a sheriff, I fired 25 employees that I have in my jail and in different sections because they did something really stupid, and I fire them. Sure I do.
I don't play with that.
So after about two months of insisting that you're not going. You're not going to go on, so they quit maintenance. They didn't want to go on the third floor or the second floor.
I said, well, why not? I mean, why won't you let your nurses be scanned? Why don't you let your jail maintenance guys be scanned?
I make my deputies scan every one that goes up.
Jailers and me, I scan. When I go there, I get nothing to show them. I will set the pace and the example.
I will get scanned every time I go up, and I go up quite a bit. Sometimes you can scan Me.
And it works because this scanner shows everything.
Okay.
[00:50:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:32] Speaker B: And it's not that it's a. It's an intrusion. It wasn't because the nurses were afraid of embodied intrusion. That wasn't it? Because you can't. It tells if a foreign object is in your body.
Right?
[00:50:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
Sounds terrifying.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: So let me ask you this.
What is so jail situation right now? The suit's going on. How do you see the suit resolving?
[00:51:01] Speaker B: If I get my receipts and what the receipts actually say would cost, I'll pay it.
I don't care if it's $20 per inmate, if he's got receipts to show me. But they tried that and it didn't work.
I'll tell you, the attorneys, my attorney and his attorney came up with a number. $17.50 per inmate.
And my attorney talked to me. I said I want receipts. Excuse me. You're fine.
I said I need receipts. I'm going to continue being a steward of the taxpayers money. I've got to have receipts. How hard is that to understand?
So I don't get my receipts and we're not going to settle it. We're going to go to court. Now I understand they parish government did a survey with a company to assess the actual cost of what it cost to feed a state in me.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: You know what that number was?
[00:52:07] Speaker A: What?
[00:52:08] Speaker B: $5 and 50 cents a day.
Jet Paris government was adding the electricity bill portion to the inmates, adding cleaning expenses to the inmates. Can't do that.
That's something. That's, that's a standing. Whether we had state inmates or not, you still had to pay the light bill, you know, and we, we caught that and said you can't do that. You can't add the cost of electricity to the sheriff, you know, for food bill.
[00:52:44] Speaker A: So.
Well, to me that sounds like housing though. So. But what you're saying is the obligation is to pay for cost of food, not necessarily cost of electricity and water, Is that right?
[00:52:55] Speaker B: He cannot charge.
It's a cost. It's a fixed cost. Okay, already.
[00:53:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: So he can't charge me already.
They have to pay the light bill, but not through the inmate food bill.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: I see. So what you're saying is I just need to see a line item. I need to see a different line item.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: I want food cost.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: So if Jesse. I'm trying to put a scenario together here. So Jesse came up to you and he said, all right, Bobby, I have line items here for you. Here's. Here's cost of power this month. Here's cost of water. This do that. That's not what's happened.
[00:53:31] Speaker B: No. He's snuck it in there. Oh.
He put it in there thinking that we would not see it, and we had to ask him to break the cost down.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: But it. But my point is, if he brings that, you'd be like, done.
Because I see that, I see that line costs. Now we're done. I can verify these expenses.
Just for food.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: Just for food.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: Not for electricity and water.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: No.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: That's a fixed cost. That's in there already. They have to pay that whether I had inmates in that building or not.
[00:54:01] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: All right.
And that's what I want. Just be fair. Let's just be fair about this.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: So I think I see. I think I see the discrepancy then, because I think what Jesse is saying is.
He wants the sheriff's department or not. Sorry, not the sheriff's department, but the cost that goes with the inmates to contribute to the water and electricity costs or the fixed costs. Like you're calling and you're saying it can't do that. We can't contribute to the fixed costs.
Okay, I think we found it at the bottom. I think I understand what's going on then.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Okay, so then from here, like, the suit goes through, what do you think is going to happen?
[00:54:39] Speaker B: We're going to go to court if.
Unless they abandon the suit.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: The parish abandons the suit.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: No, I'll give them 550of. Their study says that it costs 550 a day per state inmate. I'll give it to them.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: I will. I want to give him $17. Yeah, but if I'd have had the receipts, he'd be. He'd be feeding these inmates with $17 a day.
But I had to have receipts to show what the cost is.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And the.
Your point is that the burden of the building, including electricity and water, the fixed cost is the burden of the parish, not the burden of the. Of the sheriff's department.
And he's trying, and Jesse is trying to incorporate the cost of water, fixed, or sorry, water and electricity, the fixed cost, into the portion that you would pay in the $17 a day fees
[00:55:32] Speaker B: in addition to that cost.
He wanted me to pay for. I'm paying it already. For state inmates. I'll pay for their medical, I'll pay for their clothes, I'll pay for their transportation.
But he wanted to double charge, saying that that's what it cost to pay for. For these inmates to have clothes and. No, I'm paying that I'm paying for their medicine. They don't pay for that.
We don't charge. We know what the state law says, that the sheriff has to pay.
And on top of me paying that, I think there's money.
I know there's money coming out of the commissary of each inmate's little trust fund. They have to buy commissary goods.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:17] Speaker B: Parish government seizes some of that for a pillow, for a pillowcase, for a mattress. Well, when they leave, can they have all that stuff they're paying for? No, can't do that. Well, that's not to. That's not me.
That takes his auditors to catch that or the legislature, the state auditors. Correct. Got it.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:56:40] Speaker B: It's got to be fair. That's all I want, be fair.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: So let me ask you this. Jesse made a statement online where he said he'd be happy to sit down and talk with anybody who wants to debate through these things. Would you be willing to do that?
[00:56:54] Speaker B: You know what, after the, after the
[00:56:55] Speaker A: case is, after the trial, after the suit is over?
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. We have nothing to hide, you know. Yeah, I don't think he'll do that. I really don't.
[00:57:06] Speaker A: I gotcha.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: Because I'm going to come with numbers, I'm going to come with receipts.
Talking about receipts, paperwork they show.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: So then from here, citizens of the parish, what do you recommend for us to do? What's next steps for us? People who are trying to become more engaged in the state, more engaged in local government.
[00:57:29] Speaker B: I think the community has to have a group of leaders that want us know what they're object. Objectivity is. They want, we want to show the judges. Let's meet with the judges and then we're going to meet with the supervisor of the Energy Defender Board.
Tell them what we think and expect. You can meet with the sheriff, you can meet with the district attorney and tell us what you expect of us.
And that's why I said a while ago, I hope, I hope you allow people to call in. They didn't call me. When you put this online and they have questions, they're going to already respond on social media.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: It'll all be, it'll all be there. Yeah, yeah. And so you're saying though, if they have questions you'd want to answer?
[00:58:14] Speaker B: Absolutely. Always have been.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Well then maybe we'll have you back for a follow up episode. We can do that or you know, talk through some of the questions that might come up on the Other side of this. I think that'd be helpful for people.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: I want. I want criticism passed on. If you have an issue with a deputy, with me, with my department, I want to know about it.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: I answer those concerns. Every. Every week, somebody will call and say, this deputy was very rude to me, and I think it was. And they'll give me their side of the story, and I'll say, okay, I'm going to pull their body camera.
When they put the lights on on that unit, this. This equipment is so sophisticated. When they put their blue lights on to go to a call and body cam comes on, and if he cuts it off, we know. So when he gets to the scene and he has a confrontation with the bad guy and it's not recorded, that's a clue, you know? So, yeah, I want to. I want to fix those things. And I can tell you I've had to discipline deputies.
That's not slid under the rug. That's overt.
I want to know when people have an issue with our employees, and I want to straighten it out if they're wrong. If that complainant calls and gives me a false story, I'll call them back with the results and say, I think you didn't tell me the truth because I saw the body cam.
And it happens a lot like that, too. So there's two sides to the story all the time. It's only fair. That's what I want. Sure.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Well, Sheriff Gidrell, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Hopefully, this is helpful for our listeners.
[00:59:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:59:58] Speaker A: And we can continue to try and make a stronger St. Landry parish.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:00:04] Speaker C: Oh, go ahead.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: I'm just saying if there are concerns that they want. They didn't. We didn't think about and want to talk to me about it, they can call me. I can give you my direct line to my desk. I can give you the. You know, they need to call me. Absolutely. I'll take the call. I'm in that office Monday through Friday, eight hours, nine hours sometimes. I want to talk to people.
I do. I want them to come and tell me what your issues are. That's my job.
Somebody says, who's your boss? You know who my boss is. You.
You and the people. That's who. That's. They're my job. They're my boss, and I want to be responsible, held accountable to them.
Always been my aim.
[01:00:48] Speaker C: Yep. You're talking about accountability. That's good.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: Awesome. Dave. Anything else?
[01:00:53] Speaker C: No, I think that was Great.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, guys, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. We hope you've enjoyed this as we continue to grow and learn and understand more about politics and government in St. Landry parish and how to be engaged with it. You can go to the parishcircuit.com learn more about what we do, see stories, subscribe sponsor. Right, Dave? And maybe even sponsor. We got, like, a couple sponsors. I saw, like, there's money in the bank account. There's less than a hundred dollars, but there's money in the bank account. That's great, guys. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll see you all next time.
