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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Family of criminals

Ronal Serpas sure is one to talk here.

NEW ORLEANS – A group of activists are calling for an investigation into comments made by New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas about the family of a murder suspect.

Members of Community United for Change are pushing for Public Integrity Bureau Commander Arlinda Westbrook to open an investigation into Serpas’ comments about the family of Bobby Troy.

Troy is the suspect in the murder of a Slidell doctor in the French Quarter.

“We're petitioning Commander Arlinda Westbrook to open up an investigation on chief Ronal Serpas for conduct unbecoming an officer, for utilizing police records and information to damage individuals and groups of individuals," said W.C. Johnson, from Community United for Change.

"Throughout the investigation, however, we've determined an incredibly sad fact. Bobby Troy's entire family is a family of criminals," said Serpas Sunday. During the press conference, Serpas then detailed the criminal records of Troy’s mother and brother.

Troy was taken into custody Thursday morning by U.S. Marshals in Missouri.


It's interesting that the Chief would take the conversation in this direction. Both he and the Mayor have made an unseemly habit of presenting us with less-than-professional belligerent public statements like this lately so it's hardly surprising. Anyway if he wants to talk about "families of criminals," there's certainly fodder for that available.

Chief's son-in-law and bodyguard among officers getting paid extra to review traffic tickets, station reports

According to WDSU, records show Hosli's employees at Anytime Solutions are all high-ranking NOPD officers, although the station did not name the employees.

The station posted records showing hours worked by the company's employees over six weeks. The employees' names are whited out on the records, but there appear to be 20 of them. They are paid at rates ranging from $35 to $55 per hour. In the timesheets posted by WDSU, the most a single officer made over two weeks was $1,120.

In one two-week pay period, the city paid Officer Travis Ward, Serpas' son-in-law, more than $500 to review tickets, according to the latest report. Ward is Serpas' son-in-law.


Serpas’ daughter is connected to suspended NOPD officer
The adult daughter of a finalist for New Orleans police chief shares a house with one of the NOPD officers who was present at a Mid-City bar when off-duty colleagues allegedly beat a group of city transit workers, an event that is the subject of a FBI civil rights investigation.

The 28-year-old daughter of Nashville Police Chief Ronal Serpas, Mandy Serpas, lives with her boyfriend, Travis Ward, in a modest home in Venetian Isles. Ward was one in a small group of off-duty police officers partying at the Beach Corner Bar and Grill on Mardi Gras night in 2008. The night’s celebrations were cut short when an alleged brawl between officers and off-duty Regional Transit Authority workers left transit workers beaten, and one fingered in a falsified police report, according to an internal investigation completed by the NOPD in October of that year.




And this one from back in Nashville is probably my favorite given Serpas' enthusiasm for traffic checkpoints.

Cops charge Serpas' son with DUI


Dustin Christopher Serpas, 26, was arrested on DUI charges by Vanderbilt University police after he was found passed out in his car with the driver's side door wide open, engine running and lights on.

"On my approach to the vehicle I found a subject passed out in the driver's seat with his hands resting on the steering wheel," Vanderbilt University Police Officer Joe Evans' affidavit states. "After a few minutes I was able to awake the subject. The subject smelled strongly of an alcoholic type beverage on his breath.

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