Friday, May 13, 2011

The Best Show in Town


Ok homeslices, for the first time in a berry, berry long time, I am actually "in the mood" to bloggerbate.  As you may already know, I spent the whole day at the Mark St. Pierre trial in Judge Fallon's courtroom.  And man let me tell you, Judge Fallon hosts one helluva show.  I hope I get invited to one of his dinner parties cause today was about the best entertainment I've had since the post-K Mardi Gras...and this time I was stone-cold sober all day.

Hang with me cause I warned you it was going to be a rant.

First thing...today was a totally self-indulgent experience for me so this whole post is gonna be highly subjective and masturbatory.  I read the MSM reports of the court room preceding yesterday and then had some sources fill me in on what wasn't reported...that left me with an enormous sense of discontent.

I laid in bed last night thinking, "Man, Jaybird (my schizo second person persona)...you owe it to that blog and it's readers to go that trial tomorrow....shit...you may even owe it to Meffert."

A couple of hours later, I got up out of bed, walked outside to take a piss in my back yard at about 2 am and it hit me, "Man, fuck that blog and Meffert and the readers...you don't owe them shit or shinola...but you do owe it to yourself to go that trial."

In case you're wondering why I was pissin' outside, my homestead air conditioner is broke as the ten commandments.  I was sweatin' like a whore in church; couldn't sleep so I figured it would be cooler to step outside.  Judge me as you may.

That's the prologue...here's my blissful day.

Arrival

I got there about ten minutes before the trial started and Meff was sitting in the back of the courtroom transfixed on his Blackberry.  He did indeed have "longer hair" as 'da paper reported.  At first I was thinking it was kind of a Richard Marx thing...but not early Richard Marx and not late Richard "I chopped it all off" Marx...it was somewhere in between.  You know, now that I think about it, it was more like Daryl Hall:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHotnKwDVulC7Q8MSXITObwxTHp6IQtoLcydTceH9sOYFwR7ZNdQWfvISzj7WcUAWJIqE_4VMdIB__y2N0sFiISdLK23yIuQ04C0uv-HETbewbK5xbv6klG1W_gu4x9N7VmU2Z1Q/s320/65797640_b716afb04d.jpg


Of course I'm exaggerating...but not that much...it was like this Daryl Hall era:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdoGhmJvP5LbmXxCskGzogcmApNtKlDC8WGe4uzy9cztojpy57UXY5jjp5ARZqKbf9xAzzFWDUICnxSS3fILNgXhJcEn8bYl_XQU8Hb5TYgIw_QI8rIk7qfHMaKKhfB9DnHLnKw/s320/hall_and_oates_01.jpg

Yeah....that's more like it.

When the St. Pierre Posse arrived, I soon realized I was sitting on the brides's side of the chapel.  My first moral dilemma, "Should I move over to the prosecution's side, or should I just mingle with the sinners?" I mingled.  I chose wisely.

The Bride and the Groom

As I sat there, I couldn't stop staring at the Meff.  I wanted to "feel it" man.  I wanted to see where he@.

You know what?  He was humble.  I hate to disappoint but what I saw was a broken, humiliated man.  I felt no schadenfreude , nor did I feel pity... but I did feel for him.  He had a Pierrot thing going on, a perpetual frown and a general sense of confusion.  I took one look at him and I knew I was ready to listen...all day long I listened.

Now the St. Pierre Posse (6ish...7ish peeps) was a different story.  Jesus fucking Christ, I was spellbound with these folks and by the end of the day I had stopped listening to the defense's cross-examination altogether and just watched these guys.

Let me start with physical descriptions.

SHE was the show.  There are those that demand attention and then there's Stacy St. Pierre.  A 5'9ish brunette sporting a white jacket covering a beige...frilly (like Purple Rain-Prince-frilly)....blouse.   Down below, a pretty tight, but not skin-tight, black pair of....I swear I want to say jeans but I just couldn't tell.   Open-toed shoes...I know you're curious.  Toes manicured and almost flawless.

It's called Belle Chase chic....remember, you heard it here first.

Lady St. Pierre has kind of a Maria Shriver...but hot Maria Shriver....thing going on.  Her gait was more akin to a horse than a bunny's, as were her facial expressions.  She smiled a lot, in fact too much.  Lot's of hair flips and hair twirling.  She would also cock her head at rather bizarre moments...like she was reacting to some invisible arrow being shot at her head.

Marky Mark had this priestly vibe about him.  You know, the kind of priest that wants your kid to be the altar boy.  He had a little bit of a Clint Eastwood glare but more of a Bryan Brown appearance.  He also had a blinking thing going on...he kept blinking....a curious idiosyncrasy.

He wore a bright red tie.

Aside from their physical appearance, the Posse's emotional state was...well...careless.  In fact, it was even joyous at times.  I couldn't take my eyes off this anomaly.  These motherfuckers were not just comfortable in a federal court, it was like they were hanging out in a MLB dugout.  Lot's of laughs, lot's of smirks, lot's of head shakes...this was a well practiced team, the St. Pierres.

In fact, the king and queen arrived at the playing field in a pimped-out (white boy pimped out), black Mercedes.  I mean, sweet Buddha....you're getting charged with public graft in federal court and you show up in a "ride"?  Damn, the gonads on these folks.

Just like ballplayers in a dugout, the St. Pierre Posse had a ton of sugar.  Marky Mark was drinking Dr. Pepper at fucking 9 am in the morning.  Who drinks Dr. Pepper at 9 am?  I mean, fuck, that's like drinking Mountain Dew with your Frosted Flakes before going to school.  They also had this endless stash of certs, lifesavers, and general candy items...oral fixations.  They could have opened up a frikkin' Circle K with the amount of condensed sugar they had on person.

I worry about these fuckers...if this trial extends for any length of time they're gonna end up with type 2 diabetes.

This was the cast.

Oh!  Deus ex machina was flawless as usual.  Letten made his presence known at the beginning of the day and casually slid out within the first hour after the lead prosecutor hit stride and was running like a finely tuned Bugatti.

The First Act

The prosecution began by establishing the ownership of Imagine software.  Much to my surprise, of the principals, Mark St. Pierre, Scott Domke, Mark Kurt, and Paul Hastings,  Marky Mark only owned 25% of the company.  The defense would later harp on this fact during cross-examination.

Meffert confirmed that he was traveling to other cities to pitch Imagine/Netmethods while presenting himself as the CIO of the City of New Orleans but he was never successful in procuring contracts for the private enterprise.  The prosecution asked him why Mark St. Pierre continued to pay him kickbacks and supply him with the infamous credit card if his pimp job kept failing.  Meff replied that the New Orleans contracts were big enough and lucrative enough to justify St. Pierre's continual kick backs.

There were some various charges on the MeffCard which were brought up, including a year long family membership to Elmwood for 600+, tickets to Voodoo games, a brofest in San Diego with St. Pierre and bodyguard/ship captain/landscaper/welder/chauffeur/pimp/fill-in-the-blank, Jimmy Goodson, but the really interesting stuff was that Meff bought C. Ray and his wife plane tickets to Chicago for his 2006 mayoral fundraiser.  He also paid Ray's 50th b'day party bar tab at Sweet Lorraine's with the MeffCard...that was about $1200.

Eventually the story led to Nagin campaign contributions and Meff stated they were given the responsibility of raising 250k.  He said that Marky Mark and Ed Burns (Ciber) were assigned with raising 100k each for the campaign.  Meff said all of them eventually produced their assigned amounts.  When asked how they legally donated that much money in regards to campaign finance laws, Meff suggested they used the "conduit campaign contribution" method in which employees from St. Pierre's firm and Ciber's firm donated 5k each (the maxium) to Nagin's campaign with the understanding that they would be reimbursed.  Meff said, "We all (Ciber, Imagine, and himself) had a vested interest in getting Nagin re-elected."

I found this line of questioning interesting.  Remind me to tell you peeps a little story about that mysterious educational software package we purchased from Ciber for 1.8 million and never received.  It has to do with the Chicago fundraiser and Ed Burns.


Another item on the prosecution's list is how Meffert allowed St. Pierre to write the Request For Proposal for the 2005 contract which brought Ciber in as the prime technology vendor replacing ASC.  I've hashed all this up before, but I didn't realize Meffert allowed St. Pierre to actually write the damn RFP.  Meff went on to describe how he tilted the bidding process in Ciber's favor and how the members of the committee making the decision to award the contract were kosher with the Ciber fix.  The inital contract was for 5.5 million but of course it expanded to literally 10 times that amount by the time Ciber/Imagine were done fleecing the city.

ACT II

Moving on to the juicy shit, the questioning started leaning toward Jimmy "Renaissance Man" Goodson and that's when the dirty did arise.

By now you all know Meff confessed to buying the Silicon Bayou..the boat, the muthafuckin' boat... to provide more privacy for the stripper/poker parties they were having on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  As I was sitting there listening to the line of questioning, I started to sense this was about to take an ugly turn...so did the jury as they were visibly squirming in their seats.

Meff confessed that Jimmy Goodson, a childhood friend of St. Pierre, would procure "strippers" for the party nights on the boat and that St. Pierre would pay for it all.  As this was going on, I thought "Well, I guess they had to bring that up to the jury but it'll end there."

It didn't.

The prosecution then asked what these "strippers" did at the parties.  Meff retorted, "They performed sexual acts."

Oh shit, methought.  Surely they aren't gonna....

Prosecutor:  "Who did they perform these sexual acts on? On you?"

Meff:  "On me and everybody...."

He was mumbling like a 3 year old who just pissed his pants.  Meanwhile, not only the jury, but everyone in the room was shifting in their seats like they had stomach problems.

I immediately looked at Lady St. Pierre and was expecting to see a Jerry Springer scene unfold in front of me.  To my surprise, she was sitting there, head cocked high, grinning like a shit-eating possum.  My Jerry Springer moment suddenly turned to a Ferris Bueller - "So that's how it is in their family"- moment.  I was thrown aback.  I started having delusions of LSP kissing Marky Mark on his way out the door on Tuesday/Thursday nights saying, "Make sure you wear a condom, and pick up some 2% milk on the way home."

Also, at this point, can we discuss the Chinese wall which separates strippers from hookers?  OK, maybe not.

 ...alright I gotta go to bed....I'll finish later...and edit later...

Back.

Goodson is a gold mine.  The prosecution questioned the home repairs to Meff's house that St. Pierre paid for, via Jimmy G.  Pool repair, landscaping, electric work, and a new roof that cost about 9k were mentioned.  I was hoping the big, burning question would come up, "Did St. Pierre pay for any home repairs for Mayor Nagin?"  No luck.  Although if I was a betting man, like Jay Batt, I would put good money down that Goodson was strolling next door and fixin' up Ray Ray's house as well.

Speaking of Batt, Meff revealed that he lost "a stupid bet" with Jay Batt over who would win the Orleans Parish Sheriff's race.  He had to pony up $9600 and buy the Battman...wait for it....a Rolex.

What is it with politicians and Rolexs?  Can we just set up a fund that buys every crooked, incoming politico a Rolex?  We can call it the Jack Sutton subsidy.  At least then we can budget for the expense.  And is there a bet Jay Batt won't take?  Hey Jay, I bet you that Rolex St. Pierre gets convicted.

One other thunk that ran through my head about this story and why it bubbled up in the courtroom..."In what cozy moment did Meff and Battman make that bet?"  I wonder if it was made at a poker table, on a boat, with a stripper under the table.  Just a thunk.

The stripper sex on the boat act was hard to follow...unless Meff claimed he was fucking a mermaid or something.

Indeed the line of questioning then shifted to more mundane subjects like Lafayette CIO, Keith Thibadoux, and his wife.  Meff set Thibadoux's friends up with bullshit jobs in exchange for Netmethods' contracts with the City of Lafayette.  Some interesting facts were thrown out, including a name I didn't quite catch that the prosecution referred to as a Mississippi lobbyist.  That reference brought an immediate objection from the defense for leading the witness, the objection was sustained.  I couldn't tell if they were concerned about revealing the guy's profession or if they were just trying to keep the prosecution in line.

The Tropos donation (nodes for a mesh network for the crime cameras, wi-fi, and interoperability system) was briefly discussed which led to the discussion of Meff's decision to bring in a "rich internet company" to install public wi-fi in the city after Katrina.  He said three companies were initially interested in this initiative, Google, Yahoo, and Earthlink but in the end Earthlink was the only one willing to move forward, and in particular, use the Imagine crew as a sub.

They went on to discuss the crime cameras with not much new ground broken on that front.  However, it led to the prosecution introducing a curious item as evidence, none other than the infamous WWL radio interview between Garland Robinette and the Meff.

When this came up I was thinking "Jeez, they're not gonna play this whole thing are they?"  Yes...they were.

I've heard that interview no less than 10 times so I knew everything in it but I was a little befuddled as to why they were introducing it into the courtroom.  About that time I saw the defense counsel and Marky Mark, subtly look back at Stacy St. Pierre who immediately stood up, flipped her hair, and exited the courtroom.  Then it hit me....no, couldn't be.....was Meff going to identify her as Saint Tammany...the caller at the end of the show?

As the WWL interview rambled on I was watching Meffert sink on the stand, it seemed like he was visibly ill being forced to sit there and listen to the inane bullshit he was spouting in that interview.  The gay Scientologist reference got a few laughs out of the audience, including the jury, but the real show stopper was Garland going apeshit on Tammy, the caller at the end of the show.  Garland's voice thundered through the courtoom, "I don't know who you're working for but let me tell you I've given Mer-fert every opportunity...!"  That rant never gets old no matter how many times you listen to it.

The crowd seemed quite amused with the interview.  When questioning resumed, Meffert commented "It's really difficult for me to listen to that."  Yup, everyone else too, Greg.

The prosecution then dropped the bomb, "Did you recognize the voice of that caller?"  My ears perked up, Meff responded, "Yes, I immediately recognized the voice as Stacy St. Pierre, Mark's wife, and I was mortified."  BAM!  I called that one...in my own head, but I called it.

I was thinking, "Man, they totally slipped her out the back door and got away with it."  Not so fast, the prosecution then turned to the bailiff and told him to go out in the hall, find Mrs. St. Pierre and bring her back in the courtroom.  A tense 30 seconds ensued, the doors swung open and Stacy not only came back in....she was fuckin' working it, baby...doin' her little dance on the catwalk.  She had that horse gait strutting like a Tennessee Walker...it was all about her.

The defense asked Meff, "Is this the woman who made the phone call?  Stacy St. Pierre?"  Meffert replied in the affirmative.  The prosecution then asked him, "Is her name Tammy?"  Meff replied negatory.

But honey badger didn't give a shit....for a brief moment...she was the stah!

The courtroom then broke for lunch but I hung around listening to the Posse mumble amongst themselves...I heard one voice say "What the hell? Is Meffert now a voice analyst specialist?"

Stacy and Mark were trading kisses across the divider.  I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the Real Housewives of Belle Chase camera crew was actually shooting.  Dude...these guys are either epically deluded or they're like pirates who have consigned away all concern for their future....maybe a little bit of both.  The only person in the room who seemed more cocky than them was the lead prosecutor but he had a damn good reason to be.

Meanwhile they were popping those fucking lifesavers and shit like candy....oh wait a minute...they are candy....they were popping them like pills.  I got kind of envious and thought about asking them for a Cert, it's kind of like I paid for it anyway, huh?  I mean if St. Pierre really wanted to make amends for the public cash he siphoned he could handout Mentos, Dr. Peppers, and blow jobs to all New Orleanians.  That would make me feel better about things, I don't know about you.

Once the courtroom reconvened after lunch, the prosecution methodically went over the monthly kickback checks written by St. Pierre to Meffert.  I don't see how the defense can make an argument against those checks combined with Meffert's testimony that they were simply kickbacks.... no work was actually done.

Meff went on to say how he is now completely broke and can't get a job.  He said he has become Mr. Mom and commented, "I can always try to get a job." But he seems mentally defeated on that front.  I relate, Meff, I relate....not for the same reasons, but I relate.

The prosecution then started grilling him about lying under oath during his deposition in the civil case as well as lying on the stand in court.

Meff had arleady admitted to lying continually in order to hide "the criminal enterprise" between him and St. Pierre.  To me, this was one of the most revealing moments of the day as Meffert explained why he lied, when he lied, and the moment he realized his ass was in a sling.

He said the moment he realized shit was about to go down was during the civil trial deposition when he was suddenly asked about the Hawaii trip.  He brought this up later on in cross examination as well and stated that up to that point the Hawaii trip was just "on the websites" and had not yet become a real issue.  He said he knew it was on "someone's" radar when the civil case attorneys brought it up while he was under oath.

This, of course, gives me yet another opportunity to showcase my favorite photoshop job of all time on AZ:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgsOQsXDN3exqJGITfZZSz2zDnw7V_d_gDO7gobgt0o-dsT0tnL1TctCUnd_IYX8_ixx2kmv1nRiChqOGp8Q7RaMbVH7WpJnNdLLZGLN-s6ouDaNymYgtjG3hcMgstehGnqyn7w/s320/mauixmas1.0.jpg

http://theamericanzombie.blogspot.com/2006/09/ho-ho-honau-e-uku-said-santa-st-pierre.html
  
My favorite part of that pic is the subliminal "BOO" in the sand behind the title.  Sorry...getting lost in my own schtick.

The prosecution also pointed out that Linda Meffert had two emotional breakdowns, one in 2004 after getting fired by Copeland's restaurant group and again in 2009 after the Feds were closing in on them.  Meff got very emotional and you could see the guy truly felt horrible for what he had done.  Although I don't think Linda is as innocent in the grand scheme of things as Greg portrayed her, I appreciate the guy standing up and taking all the blame.  Later on during cross-examination he said, "I regret dragging her into this more than you know."  Yeah, I feel for you but she wasn't complaining too much when she was transferring the kick back cash and enjoying the good life, not to mention publishing an advice column telling other people how to cope with their problems and live a better life.

Act III

Upon cross-examination, the defense strategy picked up right where the prosecution left off....the lies under oath.  After a series of repetitive questions it became clear the strategy was "You're a lying, fucking liar who lies, and you're even lying when your telling the truth about your lies, so your a liar and that's that."  There was also a push to imply that the Fed was forcing Meff to lie in order to convict St. Pierre.

The way I see it, I don't care what rabbit Eddie Castaing can pull out of his hat, I was looking at the jurors and I'm pretty sure they were all thinking about the same thing me and the rest of the peanut gallery was thinking about....strippers and "sex acts" on the boat.  

It's the boat, it's the boat, it's the motherfuckin' boat!



I'm just saying...they takin' a good hard look at the motherfuckin' boat.

And now a word from our sponsor:

http://boating.com


Castaing was also pointing out that St. Pierre was only a 25% owner in Imagine and that he was "just a member" of the company, not the kingpin orchestrating the graft.  Meff had none of that nonsense and continually stated that Marky Mark was the swinging dick...no doubt about it.  Although I must admit it is a very valid point to bring up, it actually surprised me that St. Pierre only had 25% interest in Imagine.

I thought about it last night and I think I have a way to decide who was the true ring leader...let's find out who got the most stripper hummers, St. Pierre, Domke, Kurt, or Hastings.  And for the bonus round we'll throw in mystery guests, Nagin and Batt....their totals may be 0 but inquiring minds want to know.

Epilogue

Overall, I had a couple of revelations from the day.  One of the most profound was just how close AZ has been to the truth.  This isn't an ego trip, I'll tell you when I do that, but I was amazed to listen to Meff and recapitulate just how close the information on the blog really was.  All through the day I was hearing things that had surfaced here that I had forgotten about.  I'd say the blog may have even been over the 80/20 rule in accuracy, including speculation.

Another thing which occurred to me is just how much this city has changed in the wake of Katrina.  I'm not saying we're clean as a whistle but I don't think a criminal enterprise as large as the one St. Pierre and Meffert spawned could possibly exist in New Orleans' city government today.  The amount of money these guys were throwing around, including the $56 million we pumped out the door to Ciber....man...it's staggering.

The rise and fall of Meffert also weighed on my mind.  I kept thinking about the Enron documentary titled, "The Smartest Guys in the Room".  This documentary would be titled, "They Thought They Were  The Smartest Guys in the Room."  In so many ways, Meff laid the mines he would eventually step on.  The most notable was his inability to keep his mouth shut.  When he was riding high, he was boasting about the Hawaii trip, the boat, and in particular the MeffCard....that's exactly how I found out he had it.

Having said that, I can't stress enough that the Greg Meffert in that courtroom yesterday was not the same man we've come to know on this blog and in the media.  He was visibly destroyed, scared, humiliated and humble.  When the prosecution asked him if he understood what his fate is under the agreement he said (paraphrase), "I can get up to eight years in prison.  My fate lies in the hands of Judge Fallon."  He reiterated that if he lied on the stand the deal was off and having sat there all day and listened to him very closely, I think he did nothing but tell the truth.  I also think he was relieved to do it.

I was relieved to hear it.

Maybe it's because I saw Thor with my kid last Saturday, but I believe even the biggest ego can find humility and atonement....if they seek it.  I'm not being a Meff apologist by any means but I hope when this tribulation is over for him, he finds peace with his family.  If a Norse God can do it, why can't Greg Meffert?

St. Pierre...screw that guy.  I hope he gets 20 years in a fuck-me-in-the-ass-prison while his wife goes cougar, climbs in the back seat of that black Mercedes and bangs a 20 year old like a screen door in a cyclone.  This guy is completely unapologetic and was even flashing his grafted wealth in the public's face.  I hope he rots.

That's about all I got on that.

Oh yeah...Ray Nagin is burnt toast.        


25 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad that that is not how it is in our family.

Hillbilly Jedi said...

It's all "Treme: The Lost Episodes" up in here!

Thanks for the color commentary.

Anonymous said...

On one of these Tuesday / Thursday cruises the M/V Silicon Bayou ran aground and bent both propellers. An early instance of this enterprise being blown off course...

oyster said...

The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what AREN' we going to do?"

Priceless post! Can't wait for the next installment.

Anonymous said...

This could be the most perfect post I've ever read, anywhere.

Clay said...

Sorry Blogger went screwy.

This is the greatest blog post I have ever read.

Jason Brad Berry said...

I think Ashley's FYYFF will always be the best Nola post evah. But thanks for the shout out, I had that post written in my head by the time I walked out of the court. Maybe I can get a job as a Gonzo court reporter.

Jason Brad Berry said...

I know I had a ton o' fun being there. What kind of goob am I that I get off on white collar criminal trials?

Anita said...

I've followed AZ through this hoping against hope we'd read this post one day. You, of all people, certainly should have been there. This is very good to read. Thank you.

nolajoe said...

I mentioned but I ran into Meffert an elevator about a year ago, in a law firm building. the change was unmistaken, he was broken. over. the winds had left the sails and only the man remained. I felt for him, because I think we all have that vulnerability under our own shells.

as for the belle chase stars... unless they are both sociopaths, what they are probably doing is over compensating at playing "normal". this is both intentional to project innocence to the court, but probably also unintentional as they cling to denial within themselves. because a little part of them knows that their lives will be changing dramatically in a short time. right now, this is all they have -- the final act of their lives as they have known them. that is a scary prospect for anybody and will induce denial right up until the end.

I don't excuse any of these people. but the psychology is the same, and all I can do is be glad my controversies, mistakes, short comings and psyche is not literally broadcast to the world.

I have reason to say it bit I hope meffert can pick up the pieces at some point. he isn't a bad human. was living beyond his means and got stupid when a questionable opportunity presented itself (a captain-less ship in the form of the nagone admin)

nolajoe said...

btw awesome post. your commentary does us all more justice than the MSM's. and having so much personally vested in this case and being responsible for keeping it alive, it's rewarding and fitting to read your coverage.

Editor B said...

Been a long time coming and I have to agree — greatest AZ post yet. Well done, sir. I read this aloud to Xy and we both appreciated how much this illuminated what (little) we know from the paper. You've put a lot of work into being able to provide this vantage point. Thank you.

Beth said...

I agree with Clay, best post I have ever read...and you were right all along. Nagin should have written THIS book. It would have been a movie and helped his family over the next few years.

My observation is that when Nagin was taking down everyone involved in the Johnson Controls contract, no one noticed Meffert taking notes at the other end of the table. He learned from the best, but he was never cut out to be a crook or a genius. And he could not accept an ordinary life. Sad.

Mojofearless said...

Bravo, Dambala. Wonderfully done, all of it.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of donations...You can add on the $1.85 million for educational software (GoalView from LTI & CIBER) that the New Orleans taxpayers so lovingly paid for, which ended up being given to Chicago Public School's. That is the same Chicago where the Nagin fundraiser was held and the same Chicago that CIBER gave untold amounts of work to Mark St. Pierre & crew. You can thank Ed Burns, CIBER, Nagin & crew for keeping themselves before the people and city of New Orleans.

Anonymous said...

First let me say that I enjoyed the comments tremendously..
I am an old technology salesman and have been following this affair from a distance.. My question for you and your fellow bloggers is: What if any is the connection of the players to Freeport?
I seem to sense a Freeport McMoran/Waldemar Nelson connection amongst the players including Garland Robinette.. I sold a lot of hi-tech stuff to Freeport over the years and never, repeat never encountered the least bit of what I would call underhanded dealing..someone please tell me the connections, thanks

Chris said...

I thought you're closing comment about what you hope for St Pierre in prison was completely fucked up.
Other than that, good piece!

Jason Brad Berry said...

Chris, you're certainly entitled to your opinion but let me present an equation which may help justify the closing sentiment:

Where Hurricane Katrina is X, and a federally funded interoperability system is Y, and 1000's of dead people is Z:

X - Y = Z

Does that help?

Chris said...

I'm just saying, why so gleeful about institutionalized rape?
It seems a common sentiment whenever a story of the High brought Down comes up. If it was a female defendant you'd surely never say "deserves to be raped a lot" would you? (Would you?) In any case it seems rather prurient, after all he's not headed to Angola or similar so you might be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

you asked who the ringleader was - meffert set it up - he told St. Pierre what to do from the beginning. that's meffert said it was his boat - that's why meffert was the bigshot at all the parties - why he flaunted the card - in his mind, it was his own hardearned money.

Chris said...

Well this is is Louisiana which imprisons more people for longer than any state in the country, said country imprisoning more people than any other comparable democracy. Add in conditions reported from OPP that has been compared to the black hole of Calcutta, and the long and well documented history of institutionalized violence, sexual abuse and murder at eg Angola and forgive me for not getting your "Office Space" reference...
;.=)

Anonymous said...

I appreciate your hard work on this, from a long time lurker who was affected $ as a tech guy in the city by these thieves, who truly set our recovery and City back. Respect ($) has been sent!
Thank you,
C in Jefferson

zeldafaybaker said...

http://www.eroticazelda.com/_PIGGIES/_THE_BLINGS.html

vinyledge said...

http://www.eroticazelda.com/_PIGGIES/_THE_BLINGS.html

Anonymous said...

Lets get something straight regarding this image of Greg Meffert as this poor misguided guy who just happened upon the likes of the evil Mark St. Pierre. We who have know them both for some time known that Greg has always been the ring leader. He was always an egomaniac who was trying various "business & investment" schemes. He wanted to be important and in the spotlight. Many folks warned Mark not to get involved with Greg when he started his first company. The real question here for some time has been how/why did Nagin appoint him as CIO for the city. I can tell you that the IT community was stunned. He was in no way qualified for this position. I have seen his credentials listed several times and know that some are false. And exactly how did he talk Nagin into the no bid on IT contracts? Then after Katrina he was given a variety of titles by Nagin such has Director of Emergency Response - WHAT? Just who is held accountable when you put unqualified people in office who then have their own "agenda". Rest assured that Greg did not just "get in over his head", it was completely his idea.