Today’s rapid fire segment is sponsored by Bellesouth and Blue Moon….

Sleuth was wholly unreliable regarding Magnum.

About Redflex:

https://www.safespeedlafayette.com/news/redflex-scam/

“Here is a list of cities [and states] where photo enforcement has either been banned or postponed:

Alaska, Nebraska, New Jersey, Utah, and Wisconsin
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bakersfield, California
Gulf Breeze, Florida
Hawaii
Lubbock, Texas
Minnesota
Michigan
North Carolina
Ohio
Rome, Georgia”

I am really hoping for the day an Orleans paper or news station decides to seek the contracts, emails & documents behind the Orleans ATS [American Traffic Solutions] contract. It will have the same stink as the Redflex contract in JP (and probably) Lafayette.

“Nothing contained in this Agreement will be deemed to confer any right or benefit on any Person who is not a Party to this Agreement.”

https://www.safespeedlafayette.com/pdf/Lafayette_Contract.pdf

Here’s betting the JP Redflex contract says – er, said – the same thing.

This is a guess and just a guess, but it seems like Redflex got the Republican territory – JP, St. Tammany, and the host of small towns Sulphur, Gretna, Covington, etc. – and ATS got the Democratic territories, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Coincidence? Doubt it. The GOP hooker-uppers hooked up in the red parishes, the Democratic hooker-uppers hooked up in the blue parishes.

But all that aside, here is the truth of maybe the one independent study you will find on whether these contraptions really work:

“Their votes come after a six-month study showed a rise in accidents at red light camera intersections and the cameras were losing money.”

https://www.kcbd.com/story/7875071/lubbock-city-council-votes-to-halt-red-light-cameras?clienttype=printable

Lubbock got rid of their cameras after just 6 months and having the decenmt foresight and care to see if they really worked.

In LA we have seen Redflex with illegal – and anticontractual – payments to hidden friends; in Orleans we have seen almost every single ticket be issued illegally by in-house companies formed by the very police sworn to protect us, police who did not care whether the ticket was justified or not.

A 4.24.11 letter to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

““Reputable sources? You mean the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study that was soundly rejected by university researchers as a joke of a study? Where the city with the largest reported decrease had a bypass put in and refuses to stand by the numbers IIHS reported for them? Why is it all of these ‘reputable’ sources come from groups that make money off the cameras, but when you look at a study done by a university that doesn’t make money off of cameras they show increases in accidents? How about the stats she didn’t mention? How about accidents in Baytown went up 75 percent, accidents in League City up 20 percent, accidents in Houston doubled, Lubbock removed cameras after accidents went up. BTW thanks for the article. American Traffic Systems admits ‘The cameras can’t prevent accidents.’ I stop on red, so do most of the people who voted out cameras.”

7.14.10 Amarillo Globe-News:

“And two years – or seven three-month quarters of comparison before and after the activation of the six red-light cameras at five intersections – is enough time to see some definite trends. It’s not 21 days or 21 weeks. That’s 21 months of around-the-clock intersection surveillance.

In an Amarillo Globe-News story on June 27, three before/after comparisons softened my pro-red-light camera stance. Overall collisions were down only slightly – an average of 16.7 to 16.0 per quarter. Rear-end collisions, which city officials were told would be high in the beginning, still are. They’ve gone from 4.9 to 6.9. And collisions with injuries have increased, from 3.6 to 4.7.”

“The Washington Post found that despite producing 500,000 tickets and $32 million in revenue on D.C. streets in one year, injuries and collisions actually increased.”

2.15.08 Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

“The cameras have been installed at 12 intersections in Lubbock since last year. A report detailing the cameras’ first six months of use, released in January, showed a spike in rear-end collisions at intersections with and without the cameras.

Opponents of the system have said studies show the cameras are affecting drivers’ behavior for the worse.”

“Researcher Greg Mauz has opposed red-light cameras for years because of an increase in accidents he said is usually associated with them. He has watched Lubbock ‘s program evolve from his home in Christoval, a community south of San Angelo.

He also has urged the state’s attorney general, with the support of some state legislators, he says, to investigate camera companies and their ties to city officials.

“Justice has finally been served,” he said Thursday afternoon. “I have contacted the mayor’s office a number of times on this.” ”

“The city had collected about 70 percent of the fines from thousands of tickets issued last year, but it admitted it had no teeth in its ability to enforce collections. The city also had yet to make more money than ATS billed, meaning all the money had gone to the company.”

Regardless, longer yellow lights and / or yellow lights with timers on them showing how much time is left to be elapsed would likely be much more effective in helping stop red light runners and in preventing accidents.

++++++++++++++Now, really, this is a scandal.+++++++++++++

Are Lubbock & DC drivers REALLY different from Orleans and JP and LA drivers???

Young & Normand & Co. used Redflex’s own trumped up study to boost – justify – their desire to ram this down the throat of JP.

In Orleans Robert Mendoza, now SUSPENDED, and previously having run afoul of several ethical lines before I believe (yet still being brought back by Mitch Landrieu) appears to have picked ATS all on his own (or at least he announed it all on his own). Is that fair? Was it even legal? Who would know, the reporting on the foundation and selection of the contract is practically non-existent. And the New Orleans city council has never actually voted on the program itself (vs just voting on things like tweaking its procedures), have they?

Ms. Alma Evans, Just because a box is checked on a police report doesn’t mean Tom was arrested. In fact, it wasn’t OPD who charged him in the first place, it was Ms. White. Anybody can go file a police report against someone else, but the police don’t arrest you over it. Why don’t you get your facts straight by calling OPD yourself and ask them about it rather than spreading lies.

Hi Blood, I will see what I can find, but I am new to the issue and am reading with great interest. I will see if I can find anything.

However, if you want evidence of Mitch’s willingness to overlook ethical boundary-crossing from Serpas, I’d say look no further than the fact that Serpas had been caught at falsifying invoices to recycle city/NOPD funds to his division when he was previouslly with the police back in the day. That was well reported upon but please let me know if you want more info on that. It always struck me as completely incongruous for Mitch to claim that he was scrapping the old way and starting a new path when he chose as his keystone appointment a guy who is a classic example of the old way. Also, and I’ve harped on this I know, but the reluctance to look at the creation and choosing of the ATS contract is important here too; given all the money-sucking that has come from this thing why is there any reason to doubt that it was originally founded with someone shaving off the top? It’s sad but nothing big happens in this town without someone getting something off the top, off the middle and off the bottom. All we’ve seen so far from the ATS program is what’s been the lower feeders getting what they view as “theirs”, and the way things are and have been for decades (and given the principle of honor amongst thieves, or how syndicates work) maybe they were right to demand that. Now they’re taking the fall, which is also what happens in this town.

Also, there is a reluctance to look at Mitch in the NO media and blogging community. We are ALL thankful of (I would say) the improvement in local government. But it’s not over just because Nagin’s gone. Post-Katrina that was that wave of desire to reform, to improve our old ways, to become better as a city and as an area. Electing Mitch (and for all this is meagerly worth he has been an improvement) to me is just a throwback to an older era. When do we move forward once and for all?

I will see what I can find. I need to go back and look at the other post with the details; if true how does this not get mentioned in the press?

Also the Frank Fradella name does indeed go back further, and into JP, than what I had originally realized via AZ & the TP.

As far as I know, Mitch stopped practicing law when he was elected LG. It was fine for him to practice law and mediate while he was in the legislature. He ABSOLUTELY mediated cases while he was LG. My point is that it sure seems like a “full-time” elected official, like the La. Lt. Gov., should not be moonlighting, especially during the hours he’s supposed to be acting as Lt. Gov. Maybe I can find a job description for Lt. Gov.

Fradella.

Remember Burry Miller Jr. & Sr. Gretna police chiefs 1925-2005? 80 years of political control of one office?

https://slabbed.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/lets-think-dirty-james-gill-covers-the-genesis-of-the-river-birch-deal-slabbed-gives-a-plausible-answer/?replytocom=16751

Well, looks like the gang’s all here – 8.31.89 TP:

“GRETNA POLICE CHIEF GRILLED AT ROAST

The night of Aug. 19 sparkled with merriment at Chief B.H. Miller Jr.’s 10th Anniversary Roast, an unqualified success with more than 500 people at the Four Columns. It was sponsored by the Gretna Historical Society.

The guest list read like a “Who’s Who” on the West Bank, with GHS President Anne Gauthreaux as hostess. Mayor Ronnie Harris, attending with wife Donna, gave the welcoming address.

Green and gold balloons and streamers anchored to champagne bottles, nestled in shredded traffic tickets, decorated the tables.

Mary Grace Curry, mistress of ceremonies, recalled how her mother, Gladys, sang from the sound truck during B.H. Sr.’s elections, “Burry don’t you worry, the election’s in the bag.”

Among partakers were the chief’s wife Marian, daughter Liz, his mother Josephine Miller Sr., and cousin Jackie Schenck.

After cocktails and dinner, the roast began. Sirens and blue lights blazed from two police motorcycles racing through the aisles as music from “2001 A Space Odyssey” flared stereophonically, electrifying the air.

A showy outburst of smoke billowed, and 11 roasters emerged, including former Gov. Edwin Edwards.

Roaster Joe Darby got laughs with: “People say B.H. fixes tickets, but there’s not a shred of evidence to prove it.”

C.J. Eagan recalled when he and B.H., an even-tempered guy, were on the Parish Council and B.H. introduced his own brand of parliamentary procedure.

Roasters Alderman Bunny Uzee, Kenneth Leithman, Msg. Gerard Poche, Blaine Kern, Leola Crosby, Sen. Fritz Windhorst, John Varisco Sr., the unofficial mayor of Terrytown, and Kenner Police Chief Sal Lentini, in addition to Eagan, Darby and Edwards, kept the crowd laughing.

From Jefferson Parish were Council President Michael Yenni, Chairman Robert Evans Jr. and wife Sylvia, Councilman Butch and Pamela Ward and Councilman Lloyd and Marian Giardina. Felicia Ditta, Robert and Debbie Wolfe, Adrien and Beverly Lapeyronnie, Steve and Kathleen Klein, Nelson and June Barrios and Nat and Ada Knight were among the many.

Also enjoying the frivolity were the Luke Labruzza family, Nellie Cargol, Frank Deemer, Dorothy Borne and Emery and Sylvia Cox.

Wishing the chief well were Gretna’s Board of Aldermen and spouses: Gerry and Patricia Schexnayder, Sammy and Nola Marchese, Bunny and Jane Uzee, Leo and Carolyn Jones Jr. and Vincent and Shari Cox.

Among kith and kin were Kate Ward, June Lawson, Deputy Chief Arthur Lawson and wife, Brenda, Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Kass, Edna Mae and George Hepting and Nick and Phyllis Beninate.

+++++++++++++Spotted in the crowd were Judy and Brian Patureau, Olden Toups and mom Marceline, Pat and Darlene LeBoeuf, Sally and Frank Fradella .

Enjoying the levity and libations were Jack and Jerri Stumpf, Ross Ketchem, Frank and Lonnie Evans, Diane Evans and the Harold Percles. Lil and John Uhl, Dick and Helen White, Anita Christensen, Dorothy Loupe and party organizers Capt. Robert and Theresa Lyons and Chris Ziifle added their own glitter.

Dilda and Guy Stapler, Peter Russo, Lauren and Gerard Karam, Doris Jambon, Irma Donnes, Elizabeth Schwarz, Gerdie Templet, Margie Falcone and Ruth and Bill Bush made merry.

Among the seated dinner guest weree Myra and Chubby Meyer, Tony Giambelluca Russell and Marian DiMarco and daughter Alicia, Carrie Marchifava, Evelyn and Burt Strehle, Dean and Charlene Waltzer, Jon and Cherreen Gegenheimer and the B.K. Sneeds.

Joe and Lea Billa, George and Marilyn Young and Nick and Lynne Christiana, Earl Galle, Gwen and William Hinkel Sr., Casey and Margie Jones and Blaine and Carol Lee McMahon mingled among hundreds who toasted the evening.

B.H. closed the event by thanking the roasters “for the things they didn’t say.” … ”

8.16.92 TP: “Kaselaan & D’Angelo Associates Inc., a national environmental consulting firm, has announced promotions at its new Orleans regional office. Frank Fradella has been appointed vice president; Jerry Conrad has been promoted to operations manager; Richard Longman is the new manager of technical services; and Barry Brupbacher has been named manager of environmental services.”

5.23.93 TP: “NSC Corp., a Massachusetts-based environmental subsidiary of OHM Corp., has hired two people to develop a market in the South. Frank Fradella was named regional vice president in charge of all NSC operations from Florida to California, including the New Orleans office. Jerry Conrad was named operations manager for NSC Corp.’s New Orleans location.”

+++++ 7.10.93 TP – here we have a Gordon Konrad (Marcello) sighting and Gate’s Home Mortgage reference comes into play:

“HOME AGENCY DEADLOCKED OVER LAW FIRM – MORTGAGE OFFICE MAY FACE SCRUTINY FROM JEFF COUNCIL

Having funneled more than $875,000 to a politically connected lawyer since 1985, some members of the Jefferson Parish Home Mortgage Authority thought a new bond offering presented an opportunity to share the wealth.

Unfortunately, the authority’s chairman said, they hit a roadblock: Three colleagues insisted on keeping their longtime firm – Konrad, Earnest and Michaelis – and blocked every attempt to use another.

As a result, the authority, which offers mortgages to lower income, first-time home buyers at favorable rates, selected only the bond underwriters at its meeting last Tuesday.

The attorney issue left the authority locked in a dispute it can ill afford, since it wants to sell $15 million of bonds this fall and is facing increased scrutiny from the Parish Council, which appoints it.

On Wednesday, Councilman Nick Giambelluca will sponsor a resolution forcing the authority to submit its bylaws to the council and slice its $100 per meeting rate. The authority has been costing taxpayers too much money with unnecessary meetings, Giambelluca said.

“They just seem to do what they please and it’s getting ridiculous,” he said.

*** Locked in ***

On the matter of bond attorney, three members refused to vote for anyone other than Gordon Konrad. Konrad has handled every bond offering by the authority since 1985, billing more than $575,000 in the process. In addition, Betty Earnest, a name partner in Konrad’s firm, was the authority’s legal adviser from October 1989 to April 1992, at a cost of $310,000, Chairman Dan Kelly said.

The trio supporting Konrad were authority vice chairman Louis Thomas, and authority members William Lazaro and Eugene Orgeron. The three voted against all other law firms considered.

Those members were appointed by Council Chairman Robert Evans, who named Lazaro, and council members Donald Jones and James Lawson, who appointed Thomas and Orgeron, respectively.

Since 1991, the firm of Konrad, Earnest and Michaelis has given at least $4,500 to Evans, $1,000 to Lawson and $500 to Jones, according to campaign finance reports.

“It’s the same group that has always voted for” Konrad, Kelly said. “I thought we should attempt to share the business and give someone else who’s qualified a chance.”

+++++++++++Kelly’s view was shared by authority members Lurry Plauche and Frank Fradella .

Jones said Friday he was unfamiliar with the situation and would press his appointee for information. He said his appointees function independently, and he intervenes only when boards and committees begin to jockey for political position.

“A lot of these committee and board members have been there a long time and they vote anyway they please,” Jones said.

Four law firms submitted proposals to handle the latest bond offering, a job estimated to be worth $60,000. The authority voted on three of them but failed to get a majority. One authority member, Carol Simmons-Rathborne, was absent.

The authority then voted to readvertise for bond counsel, which Kelly called “foolish.”

But Thomas said only Earnest had made a pitch to him before the meeting, and thus he voted for the firm with which he was familiar. He said he has since met with other firms.

“I voted the way I did because I only knew about the one firm, but now I’ve been impressed with the ideas some of the other attorneys have presented to me,” he said.

Konrad said he did not consider himself a favorite in the proceedings, though he expressed disappointment his firm couldn’t muster the four-vote majority. He defended his firm’s relationship with the authority, saying the firm’s many hats provided better service.

Lawson and Evans said they had not tried to influence the process, and stayed out of the day-to-day operations of the authority.

“I haven’t lobbied anybody on anything,” Evans said.”

5.18.94 TP – let’s guess, was/is Jimmy related to either/both Burry Miller?:

“LEGAL OPINIONS DIFFER ON PAYMENTS TO KELLY

No one doubts that Jefferson Parish Home Mortgage Authority Chairman Dan Kelly received twice as much pay last year as any of the organizations’s other nine members.

But parish leaders disagree on whether the $10,900 Kelly received for attending twice as many meetings as his colleagues violated parish law.

And Kelly, in the final four days of a campaign for the 79th District House seat, says he knows why the 2-year-old issue resurfaced this week.

“This is the last week of a campaign and this is a way to shoot me down,” Kelly said. “This is all political.”

Kelly contends that Jimmy Miller, a major in the Sheriff’s Office and a friend of House candidate Danny Martiny, was in the mortgage authority’s office Monday asking for pay records.

Kelly said he believes Miller was working on Martiny’s behalf and that the two men then distributed the information about the meetings to the media. The election will be May 21.

Both Martiny and Miller denied the accusation. Martiny said he did not solicit the information but received an anonymous fax Saturday detailing the per diem payments of board members. Martiny said he asked Miller to see if the information was accurate.

But Martiny and Miller said they did not prepare or send any faxes to the media.

“I had nothing to do with it and I know (Miller) didn’t fax it out either because I was the one who showed him the information,” Martiny said.

The issue first surfaced in March 1992 when the Jefferson Parish Council passed a law limiting the number of annual meetings for parish committees or authorities to 52. According to the law, per diem fees were set at $75 and members of any parish group meeting more than 52 times a year would not be paid.

But the home mortgage authority never adopted the law and Kelly was paid for 109 meetings last year.

Attorneys for the parish and the mortgage authority have disagreed on whether the 1992 law applies to the organization and, more specifically, to Kelly.

Michael Dendy, an attorney for the mortgage authority, said the group is separate from the parish and receives no parish money.

He said only state law and the mortgage authority’s bylaws apply to the organization. And the bylaws, he said, allow for reasonable per diem compensation.

But Debra Miller-Yenni, a parish attorney, said the mortgage authority’s bylaws cannot violate local public laws. So she said the parish ordinance limiting the number of meetings and amount of per diem payments became the controlling law once it was passed last summer.

Miller-Yenni said the only way to settle the issue is to have a judge decide who is right. But the council has not asked her to bring the matter to court.

The only reason the issue has surfaced this week is because of the election, said Parish Councilman Ed Muniz, who appointed Kelly to the mortgage authority.

Kelly said he had twice as many meetings as the other members of the authority because he was chairman and spearheaded an investigation into a 1982 bond issue that involved conversations with bond underwriters, lawyers and other players.

Muniz praised Kelly’s work on the mortgage authority, saying he has changed bond counsels and made other moves to save money.

“It’s just ironic that this hits three days before an election,” he said. “If this (per diem issue) has been on the record for more than a year and has just become an issue in the last week, how can it not be a political move?”

REIMBURSEMENTS

Jefferson Parish Home Mortgage Authority, 1993

Member Meetings Total

Daniel P. Kelly 109 $10,900

Louis Thomas Jr. 53 $5,300

+++++++Frank Fradella 51 $5,100

Eugene J. Orgeron 48 $4,800

Carol S. Rathborne 46 $4,600

Lurry J. Plauche 32 $3,200

William Lazaro Jr. 11 $1,100

Merlin Fayard Jr. 2 $200

Mark Gibson 1 $100

Anthony Thomas 1 $100

Source: Jefferson Parish Home Mortgage Authority”

And here we have an appearance by Butch Ward – 5.25.94 TP:

“MORTGAGE AUTHORITY PICKS HIGHEST BIDDER

Amid charges of favoritism, a divided Jefferson Parish Home Mortgage Authority this week abruptly replaced its financial adviser and legal counsel with politically connected professionals poised to participate in a proposed $50 million bond issue.

One critic of the change, authority Chairman Dan Kelly, was stripped of his post shortly after members approved the moves by a 4-3 vote Monday.

“This all happened because that’s what four (Parish) Council members wanted to happen,” Kelly said. The authority, which offers mortgages at favorable rates to low- and middle-income, first-time homebuyers, is appointed by the Parish Council.

But Parish Councilman Nick Giambelluca said he also is concerned about the changes made by the authority.

“I’m not at all happy,” Giambelluca said. “We’re going to look into this.”

Kelly, who remains on the authority but is no longer chairman, said he believes some council members are on the attack, partly to punish him for running against Danny Martiny in the 79th District House of Representatives race. Martiny was elected Saturday with the support of most of the parish’s elected officials.

Kelly said he was elected president of the authority by a 7-0 vote about a month ago. He said he was shocked by the decision to oust him.

Other members said they didn’t want to replace Kelly during his House race because that might look like a political jab.

“I think you need new blood and new leadership,” authority member Robert Lambert said in defense of his vote to oust Kelly.

Kelly said he believes some members are trying to funnel bond fees to their political supporters. The authority is drafting plans for a $50 million bond issue this year.

Dillon-Read, the authority’s new financial consultant, is the parish’s financial consultant and contributes heavily to Parish Council members. Dillon-Read, one of four companies that submitted bids to the authority, was the highest bidder, officials said.

M.G. McMahon and Co., of Kansas City, which served as financial consultant to the authority on four previous issues since 1989, submitted a bid that officials said was about 20 percent less than Dillon-Read’s.

Because it’s a professional service, the financial consultant selection is not subject to the state’s public bid law.

At its present bid, Dillon Read would make about $60,000 on the $50 million bond issue, officials project.

+++++++++++Frank Fradella , named chairman to replace Kelly, said McMahon did good work. But he said a majority of the authority members wanted to go with the larger Dillon-Read firm.

“We went with the same people that do work for the parish,” Fradella said. “They seem to be the best.”

He said the authority may negotiate with Dillon-Read for a lower rate.

The authority also decided to hire a legal counsel to replace Michael Dendy, who had served in that post for about two years. Dendy was replaced by Gretna lawyer William Scheffler.

Officials said Dendy, who lives in Orleans Parish, was replaced because he’s not a Jefferson Parish resident. The authority’s attorney is paid $3,100 a month, officials said.

++++++++++++Parish Councilman Butch Ward, who appointed Fradella to the authority, said there’s been talk in parish circles for several months about replacing Dendy with a parish resident.

“Yes, it was strictly a political decision with me,” Ward said. “All things being equal, I want to hire a guy from my neighborhood. I’d be crazy not to.” ”

Er, well, well, well – 3.3.95 TP (please someone say there is more than one “Frank Fradella”, maybe mroe than two, right? Right?):

“Arrests … Gretna … Frank Fradella , 17, 525 Diplomat St., Terrytown, was arrested in the 2200 block of Stafford Street and booked Monday with six counts of attempted homicide. After an argument between two groups erupted into a fight early Saturday, Fradella allegedly went to a car and got a .380-caliber automatic pistol and fired it into a car, Gretna police Capt. Chuck Whitmer said. No one was injured. Jason Vasquez, 20, 2106 Springbrook Lane, New Orleans, and Willie Jones, 17, 1204 23rd St., Gretna, were booked as accessories after the fact to attempted homicide. They allegedly helped conceal the gun and were present during the shooting, Whitmer said.”

2.1.96 TP: “Arrests … Gretna .. Frank Fradella , 18, 2016 Gen. Taylor St., New Orleans, was arrested and booked Wednesday at the Parish Correctional Center with armed robbery.”

2.8.96 TP: “While a jury deliberated in the aggravated criminal damage trial of an 18-year-old Terrytown man, the defendant’s sister and girlfriend beat up a state’s witness in a Jefferson Parish courthouse bathroom Wednesday, authorities said.

The pair were arrested and cited for contempt of court. Moments later the jury returned with a guilty verdict against Frank Fradella , who fired at a moving truck in Gretna last Feb. 25.

Fradella’s girlfriend, Debra Woessner, 20, and his juvenile sister were held in custody overnight and will be brought before Judge Melvin Zeno on the contempt hearing today at 9 a.m. Zeno presided over Fradella’s trial.

Prosecutor Butch Wilson said they also could be booked with battery and intimidation of a witness.

Wilson said the two attacked a 16-year-old girl who had been on the state’s witness list but was not called to the stand. She was attacked in the women’s restroom at the opposite end of the second-floor hall from Zeno’s courtroom, Wilson said.

“She had severe gashes on her back and some of her hair was pulled out,” Wilson said. “We learned about it when someone ran in the courtroom and said, ‘We need deputies.’ ”

The incident for which Fradella was convicted occurred outside the beating victim’s home, Wilson said.

Testimony showed that, on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, a group of youths went to that residence to pick up another girl and take her home. When the driver said he didn’t want to go inside because Fradella “was nothing but trouble,” Fradella came outside and attacked him, Wilson said.

The group drove away but Fradella fired one shot with a .380-caliber pistol, witnesses said, hitting the headrest on the driver’s side.

Fradella testified that he fired because he thought the driver might be armed. His attorney, Glenn Morgan, told jurors that Fradella simply had committed a stupid act and shouldn’t be punished severely. Wilson countered that, if stupidity were a defense, “I’ll have to let all the criminals out of jail because that place is full of idiots.”

Fradella will be sentenced March 27. He faces 5 to 15 years in prison.”

10.12.00 TP: “Frank Fradella , 23, 1145 Wright Drive, Terrytown, was arrested Wednesday for possession of crack and possession of a stolen automobile.”

There is no more on any Frank Fradella of any political or business sort until the TP’s Gordon Russell begins reporting 1.16.08 about the sketchy contracts under Nagin, but there they describe Frank Fradella as. “Frank Fradella, a self-described child of the 9th Ward, beamed last week as Mayor Ray Nagin lauded his firm’s efforts to rebuild the old flagstone sidewalk in Pirates Alley, a cherished public space in New Orleans’ signature neighborhood. The mayor told the crowd that Fradella’s company, Home Solutions of America, would soon restore other French Quarter sidewalks. It was a perfect winter day in New Orleans — mild, sunny and dry — and everyone was in a good mood.”

There is also a Frand Fradella in Des Allemands and the TP also reports a Frank Fradella Studebaker dealership that was on the West Bank Expressway in the early `60′s (in a story about selling an Avanti to Joe Meraux (yeah, that Joseph Meraux)).

This sounds like a whole other guy, not from JP, but from the 9th Ward.

The Meraux story makes for an interesting connection between JP & St. Bernard though.

But it’s amazing what turns up about the JP Frank Fradella:

6.12.06 TP: “Anna Mae Quintini White passed away on June 8, 2006. Age 89 years. Beloved wife of the late Clarence Walter White. Loving mother of Mary Ann White Fradella and Kathlyn White. Mother-in-law of +++Frank Fradella and Robert Paul. … She was preceded in death by her parents, Ernest Quintini and ++++Daisy Green Coulon … . Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Mass at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home … ” This would mean that Frank Fradella of JP was married to a Coulon.

It’s also interesting to see the people named Fradella who contributed to Mitch Landrieu (5.13.06 TP):

Catherine A. Fradella – $5000
Frank Fradella – $5000
Frieda Fradella – $5000
Katherine Fradella – $5000

There are several Frank Fradellas in fact, one in Chalmette (just Frank), in Marrero (Frank A.), Gretna (Frank C.), Metairie (Frank T. (apparently not the same guy(s) in the news)), but some of it really is a trip – which Frank Fradella is this?:

“CKB INVESTMENTS OF LOUISIANA, L.L.C. Limited Liability Company BATON ROUGE Active

Business: CKB INVESTMENTS OF LOUISIANA, L.L.C.
Charter Number: 36129391 K
Registration Date: 2/27/2006
Domicile Address
2251 DRUSILLA LANE, SUITE B
BATON ROUGE, LA 70809
Mailing Address
2251 DRUSILLA LANE, SUITE B
BATON ROUGE, LA 70809
Status
Status: Active
Annual Report Status: Not In Good Standing for failure to file Annual Report
File Date: 2/27/2006
Last Report Filed: 3/16/2010
Type: Limited Liability Company

++++++++++Registered Agent(s)
Agent: JOHN L. DARDENNE, JR.
Address 1: 356 ST. CHARLES
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70802
Appointment Date: 2/27/2006

Officer(s) Additional Officers: No
Officer: PETER P. BARRIOS
Title: Manager
Address 1: 2251 DRUSILLA LANE, SUITE B
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809

Officer: FRANK FRADELLA IRREVOCABLE TRUST #1
Title: Member
Address 1: 2251 DRUSILLA LANE, SUITE B
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809

Amendments on File (1)

Description Date
Appointing, Change, or Resign of Officer 3/29/2011″

“LIGHT ENERGY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS, LLC Limited Liability Company BATON ROUGE Active

Business: LIGHT ENERGY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS, LLC
Charter Number: 40108619 K
Registration Date: 1/27/2010
Domicile Address
2251 DRUSILLA LANE
SUITE B
BATON ROUGE, LA 70809
Mailing Address
C/O PETER BARRIOS
2251 DRUSILLA LANE, STE. B
BATON ROUGE, LA 70809
Status
Status: Active
Annual Report Status: In Good Standing
File Date: 1/27/2010
Last Report Filed: 5/16/2011
Type: Limited Liability Company

Registered Agent(s)
Agent: PETER BARRIOS
Address 1: 2251 DRUSILLA LANE
Address 2: SUITE B
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809
Appointment Date: 1/27/2010

Officer(s) Additional Officers: No
Officer: FRANK FRADELLA IRREVOCABLE TRUST #1 FRADELLA
Title: Member
Address 1: 2251 DRUSILLA LANE
Address 2: SUITE B
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809″

In response to the question, “you call the police department and ask why was the box checked next to “Arrest Occurred,” and get back to me.”

I don’t think the form is the best indicator of what factually happened. If Mr Freeland was taken into custody (isn’t that what is meant colloqually by the ward ‘arrested’?), the Oxford jail log should show that he was booked and held or released. If he was handed the citation and told to be in court (which is the case with a lot of misdemeanors), then they might check the “arrest” box.

Does anyone know if the complaining witness approved the release of her affidavit? If not, it’s really not cool to call her by name.