Four Louisiana State Police troopers
were demoted or disciplined following an investigation into a lavish
"side trip" the men took to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2016 while
on their way to a conference in San Diego.
The travel scandal cost longtime State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson his job. He retired after
details of the trip were made public.
Those disciplined include:
- Capt. Derrell Williams, who was previously reassigned from the rank of major and has now been demoted to lieutenant;
- Lt. Rodney Hyatt, who has been demoted to the rank of sergeant;
- Master Trooper Thurman Miller, who received a letter of reprimand;
- and Trooper Alexandr Nezgodinsky, who was counseled.
State
Police conducted the investigation that resulted in the discipline. The
officers have the option of appealing the disciplinary actions to the
Louisiana State Police Commission.
“This
administrative investigation was an unfortunate but necessary process,"
new State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves said in a statement.
"As
a department charged with the public safety of our citizens, we must
hold ourselves accountable before we can begin to hold others
accountable.
“One incident does not define us. We
will inevitably make mistakes, but together, our goal must be to promote
an environment that is not only conducive to public service and
cultivates professional development and growth but also maintains public
confidence in our agency."
The state spent $33,000
in expenses and thousands more in overtime to send 15 troopers to a law
enforcement conference in San Diego in Oct. 2016, as first reported by
The Advocate in Feb. 2017.
Most
of the troopers flew, but four who attended drove in a state SUV and
diverted from a direct route to make side trips to Las Vegas, where they
stayed in a casino resort, and the Grand Canyon.
Edmonson
authorized the troopers to take the SUV, citing a need to have a
vehicle to attend events away from the main conference site.
Reeves sent disciplinary letters to Williams and Hyatt, calling their actions unacceptable.
Reeves noted personal email exchanges between Williams and a friend that Reeves said were inappropriate and violated policy.
"During
the investigation, a review of your department email account revealed
that you sent and received personal email messages during the travel
period under review. These messages were not work-related, and at least
one of the emails you received contained a sexual image," Reeves wrote
to Williams.
An email from Williams to his friend
showed a photo of his bed in the Las Vegas hotel room with the
message: "Has your name all over it. Look at the bar at the top of the
head board. What do you think that is for?"
"On
Sunday. October 16, 2016, at 10:34 a.m., you received an email from the
same friend with the subject, "No panties Sunday" and an attached image
of her seated in a chair, wearing a skirt with no panties, showing her
genitalia," Reeves wrote in the letter to Williams.
Reeves wrote to Hyatt that billing the agency for overtime while sleeping and sightseeing cast a "cloud" over the agency.
"Your
indifference to the common sense notion that it is improper to claim
(pay for) time when you are sightseeing or when you are sleeping has
cast an unwarranted cloud of questions over this department and that of
each and every one of its employees," Reeves wrote in his letter to
Hyatt.
Edmonson, who led the State Police over 10
years and two governors, said he was embarrassed by the revelation and
pledged to conduct a full investigation.
Edmonson said he didn't know about what the agency referred to as the "side trip."
In the end, Edmonson's policy reforms and repentance weren't enough to save his job. He retired in March.
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