Louisiana Sheriff Who Criticized Pipeline Opponents Is Ordered to Release Records on Standing Rock Visit

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On December 27,ย a state* appeals court ordered a Louisianaโ€™s sheriffโ€™s department and its sheriff to release information about its officersโ€™ trip to North Dakota during the heated protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016. The extended, indigenous-led protests near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation drew a highly militarized response from public and private law enforcement. Out-of-state cops, including those from Louisianaโ€™s St. Charles Parish, flooded North Dakota to support it via an interstateย agreement.

The latest move reversed a decision by a district court, whichย denied aย public records request made by theย Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights law firm which has worked on behalf of environmental groups* in Louisiana,ย after parish law enforcement spoke out against Dakota Access pipeline opponents and endorsed the Bayou Bridge pipeline, a similar oil pipeline inย Louisiana.

โ€œWe saw a dangerous blurring of the lines between law enforcement and private corporations at Standing Rock,โ€ Pamela Spees, a senior staff attorney withย CCR, stated when first filing suit for the public records in Decemberย 2017.

On February 26, Anne White Hat, Rosebud Lakota Nation, was among those arrested after protesting at a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site.
On February 26, Anne White Hat,ย Rosebud Lakota Nation,ย wasย among thoseย arrested after protesting atย a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site. Credit:ย Julieย Dermansky

Spees,ย who was raised in Lake Charles, one of the communities that willย be affected by the Bayou Bridge pipeline,ย is leading a lawsuit by Louisiana environmental groupsย seeking public records fromย St. Charles Parish Sheriffย Greg Champagne. She was also an attorney in a lawsuitย against Bayou Bridgeย Pipeline, LLC,ย which so far has unsuccessfully challenged the company’s right to use eminent domain to confiscate land to build the pipeline, which is nearlyย operational.ย 

The Dakota Access pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer (formerly known as Energy Transfer Partners), theย principal owner of the also-contested Bayou Bridge pipeline, a 163-mile-long pipeline that cuts across southern Louisiana from St. Charles,ย near the Texas border, to St. James, on the Mississippi River. Despite ongoing legal battles in federal and state courts,ย the Bayou Bridge pipeline has been nearlyย completed.ย 

Louisiana Sheriffs, a Pipeline Company, and a Private Securityย Firm

According to a CCR press release, the centerโ€™s request โ€œalso seeks to investigate larger connections among SCPSO [St. Charles Parish Sheriffโ€™s Office], Sheriff Champagne, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), andย TigerSwan LLC, in light of ETPโ€™s proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline project inย Louisiana.โ€ย 

TigerSwan, a private security firm involved in the Dakota Access response but denied a license to operate in Louisiana, is a corporate donor to the National Sheriffsโ€™ Associationโ€™s $3.46 million budget, according to the associationโ€™s most recent tax forms. Under Sheriff Champagneโ€™s leadership,ย the association lobbied Congress for surplus military gear and other undisclosed issues related to the Dakota Access pipeline, according to a review of federal lobbying disclosureย forms by Steve Horn for DeSmog.ย 

The centerโ€™s public records request, filed September 18, 2017, was made after St. Charles Parishโ€™s Sheriffย Greg Champagneย and others connected to law enforcement, includingย Joseph Lopinto, theย newly elected sheriff of Jefferson Parish who spoke on behalf of the National Sheriffsโ€™ Association at a Bayou Bridge permit hearing, publicly criticized pipelineย opponents.ย 

At the time of his October 2016 visit to Standing Rock, Sheriff Champagne was also the president of the National Sheriffsโ€™ย Association and madeย largely unsubstantiated claims aboutย the Dakota Access protests against the pipeline.ย In aย Facebook post Champagne wrote: โ€œDespite the statements coming from the media and protesters that they were completely peaceful and prayerful, it has been a fact that more militant protestors [sic] (terrorists) haveย destroyed property and physically beaten employees of the company in recentย weeks.โ€

In Februaryย 2017 Sheriffย Lopintoย voiced support for the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a permit hearing in which he claimed that Dakota Access protesters shot at law enforcement officers. โ€œWe donโ€™t wantย the same thing occurring in Louisiana,โ€ heย said.ย 

Were North Dakota Trip Photos and Videosย Destroyed?

The records Spees is seeking include receipts for all travel expenses, which reportedly add up to nearly $36,000, and video and photos taken by St. Charles Parish deputies during their trip to Northย Dakota.

Though the appeals court ruling makes clear photos and video taken in North Dakota by Captain Patrick Yoes, commander of the St. Charles Parish Special Services Division, should be released, Spees worries those may never surface because it is unclear whether the department retained theย materials.ย 

Captain Yoes testified that โ€œthe files from the devices were loaded on a hardย drive, and heย provided all of the files relating to theย EMAC [Emergency Management Assistance Compact] to the [North Dakota Morton] countyโ€™s sheriff and the publicย information officer.โ€ However, Yoes said the original camera memory cards which he returned to Louisiana with may not have been preserved and it is unclear if the data on to the hard drives left in North Dakota have beenย preserved.

Spees doesn’t see anything controversial about the records request and considers its initial denial unfortunate, because it compelled the center to litigate on behalf of opponents of the Bayou Bridgeย pipeline.ย 

Champagne could appeal the federal courtโ€™s decision with theย Louisiana Supreme Court.ย I reached out to Champagneโ€™s communications officer but did not receive aย response.ย 

*Update 12/29/18: This story has been updated to reflect that a state, not federal, appeals court reversed the decision and that CCR filed the public records request and lawsuit, which was not filed on behalf of environmentalย groups.

Main image:ย Law enforcement officers next to pipeline opponents at a Louisianaย Department of Natural Resources permit hearing for the Bayou Bridge projectย on Februaryย 8, 2017. Credit: Julie Dermansky forย DeSmog

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Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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