BATON ROUGE - A state district court judge dismissed Dorothy Jackson's lawsuit against Southern University recently, but her attorneys said she will appeal.

It is the second time a lawsuit she's filed was dismissed against Southern alleging her rights were violated over her termination. In October of last year, a federal court judge dismissed Jackson's federal lawsuit against Southern. She appealed to the fifth circuit, which upheld the lower court's ruling.

Her attorney, Joel Porter, told us this at the time.

"I don't think this is a time for John Pierre or the defendants at Southern University to celebrate," Porter said. "It will be short-lived. I'm certain of that. Don't pull out the bottles and celebrate so quickly."

But, Jackson lost her appeal to the fifth circuit shortly after that. Last week, she was dealt another blow when her state lawsuit was dismissed out of the 19th JDC.

Jackson was a tenured law professor at Southern University's Law Center when she drafted a will for a client at the Council on Aging. Jackson was a Board Member at the Council on Aging at the time, and the will Jackson drafted benefited the agency's Executive Director Tasha Clark Amar. Clark Amar and Jackson backed off of the will immediately without explanation. Jackson still serves the Council on Aging as a board member.

Jackson claimed in her lawsuit that there was a breach of contract, violations of due process, and emotional distress that she suffered as a result of her termination. In the state and federal cases, both judges have dismissed her lawsuits citing no cause of action.

Jackson's attorneys declined to comment on the dismissal of her second lawsuit.

BATON ROUGE - In his first one-on-one interview, Colonel Lamar Davis talked about a number of controversies that have plagued the state's premier law enforcement agency and culminated in the abrupt retirement of his predecessor, Kevin Reeves.

Davis said his biggest hurdle right now will be trying to rebuild trust.

"There's a lot of distrust from the community and internally," Davis said. " I want to build that trust, and trust who we are and that we are doing the right thing. That's my challenge."

Following controversy after controversy exposed this summer, Reeves refused to discuss any of them with the public before he retired. Under Reeves' watch the WBRZ Investigative Unit exposed August McKay didn't receive any discipline after it was discovered he used the n-word in a phone call to his co-worker. State Police covered that up by initially denying our public request for documents. They finally released them, and it was discovered McKay wasn't disciplined.

"It's very concerning, and what's more concerning is the process that we have in place," Davis said. "Immediately coming into office, one of the things I want to look at is the processes, look at situations like that. We need to look at the entire process, and there were gaps in that process that failed."

Doug Cain is Davis' Chief of Staff. Sources have told WBRZ that Cain was deeply rooted in the past administration, and multiple sources have said that as long as he's around real changes won't happen. Cain is also the one who called WBRZ trying to shut down the August McKay story.

"I understand that, but I've been in every administration that he's been in," Davis said. "I've done my job objectively and I've done it without any issues. I expect the same of Doug. He is my Chief of Staff, and he's going to work as I expect him to."

WBRZ also asked Colonel Davis if he intended to discipline the troopers who were aware that Ronald Greene was beaten to death but did nothing. That shocking case came to light within weeks of the August McKay matter and showed that State Police covered up Greene's 2019 death.

A leaked audio recording from Trooper Chris Hollingsworth surfaced where Hollingsworth admitted to beating Greene before he "went limp." Hollingsworth was served intent to terminate papers after public outcry some 16 months after Greene's death and died in a single-vehicle crash hours later. Many have called his death a suicide.

"That is being handled by the FBI," Davis said. "They will make all statements moving forward."

In addition to the Greene matter, Davis also weighed in on Kaleb Reeves, the son of former Colonel Kevin Reeves, killing two people in what sources called an at-fault crash while he was responding to a call. Kaleb Reeves has not been ticketed.

"What I'm doing is reviewing those cases and the processes," Davis said. "What I want people to understand is this is not something that we take lightly. As I review those cases, I'll make the proper determinations."

Davis said he's excited about restoring the public's trust, as he plans to make changes at State Police. He said he knows that he is the right man for the job.

"As we move forward, what we want to think about, what we try to accomplish - it starts with me and ends with me," Davis said. "That's how I reassure them by every action, every interaction and every communication."

BATON ROUGE- Attorneys representing WBRZ-TV are demanding transparency from Louisiana State Police one day after the WBRZ Investigative Unit published a story about records State Police released-- some of them totally unreadable and blacked out.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit requested emails from top LSP brass tied to Trooper August McKay's use of the n-word. In August, State Police said it would take about 30 days to compile. Instead, it took two months, and when the records were finally made available for viewing many of them were black pages. Typically, public entities may redact private identifying information or words but not entire pages.

"Certainly used to seeing individual elements of a page redacted, social security numbers things like that," WBRZ attorney Chase Tettleton said. "To see entire pages redacted that's shocking, almost outrageous."

Trooper August McKay was exposed by WBRZ in September after he flippantly used the n-word. His Apple watch mistakenly called an African-American co-worker is the excuse McKay gave when he was interviewed. He claimed he was not racist and was referring to his "deadbeat cousin" who had bill collectors after him.

WBRZ exposed that State Police failed to discipline McKay for the use of the slur because a letter of reprimand was drafted but not delivered to McKay.

"There's something going on here, a lack of transparency," Tettleton said. "It certainly looks like in this instance that State Police is not holding true to their obligation to the public records laws."

Tettleton said there are specific situations when records can be redacted, like if something is under a criminal investigation. The matter involving McKay never was investigated criminally.

"There are exceptions to the public records law," Tettleton said. "There are certain classes of documents classes of information that are not subject to disclosure. Embarrassing information, professionally harmful information, those are not exempted items of public records."

Some of the emails that were turned over to WBRZ show questions we asked about the McKay situation. A number of high ranking members of State Police passed the email around and responded to it but they redacted what they were saying.

"In other states we call these sunshine laws," Tettleton said. "The idea being that sunshine is the best antiseptic, openness and transparency roots out any corruption in government. So that's why public records are fundamentally accessible across the country and fundamentally accessible here."

WBRZ asked State Police for a response about why the records were redacted at 10:12 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11. They got back to us at 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, saying some records were redacted due to their "deliberative process." We asked them to explain what that is.

State Police also said that other pages were redacted because they were not part of our request. They did not explain why the documents were placed in the file if they were not part of what we requested.

NEW ROADS - Cases of neglect at a nursing home in the heart of New Roads caused state lawmakers to meet with the families of residents there Monday.

Andre Monceret pulled his mother out of the home last week after documenting repeated incidents of problems. Monceret said his mother who has dementia was not properly cared for. He said he has evidence of the following: his mom sitting in a soiled diaper for more than six hours, fingernails filled with grime, toenails that have not been trimmed in months, and teeth that have not been brushed for weeks.

"I pulled her out of this home the other day, her fingernails were nasty like she was digging in the dirt with grime and feces," Monceret said.

He said his mom has always been well kept and to see her like that was beyond devastating.

His frustration caught the attention of parish leaders who have helped facilitate meetings with state lawmakers.

"From a change perspective, being in the legislature formally, I've invited our legislators that represent this area to sit with some of the families and learn what standards are in place but what are opportunities to change some things," Pointe Coupee Parish President Major Thibaut said.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit found the facility has a history of problems. According to inspection reports available for public viewing, Pointe Coupee Healthcare was cited 13 times over the past three years. The facility was fined in August 2019, $36,000 for failing to timely report suspected abuse and neglect. In 2018, the home was also cited for violating federal standards protecting residents from the spread of infections.

In May there were multiple deaths reported and skyrocketing numbers of COVID-19.

Thibaut said with the recent cases of neglect and the lack of family members being able to routinely check in on their loved ones, he reached out to the facility which promised that changes were coming.

"We're going to make changes and are investigating when that was and when it took place. And we will put procedures in place to make sure we stay current on everything," Thibaut recalled the administrators telling him.

We reached out to Pointe Coupee Healthcare for a comment on this story. A public relations firm out of New Orleans released the following statement:

“We are grateful to the family members of the residents involved for bringing these issues to light. We share your concerns and are conducting an internal investigation to determine what occurred and how it can be addressed.

Rest assured that we will work diligently to correct these issues and determine the best path forward. 

Our top priority is making sure that our residents are receiving the treatment and care they deserve. This includes a customized care plan for each resident, protocol for communicating any issues to families and education for our staff on how to properly maintain residents’ hygiene. 

While we are constantly working to ensure that all of these policies are enforced, we encourage residents and resident families to reach out to us with any issues they might have so they can be researched and handled properly.”