Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Wisner Trust - Battle for the Bayou - Part 2.2

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Wisner Fund - Battle for the Bayou - Part 2": 

Looks as if Mr. Basile Uddo is also contracted by the City. Mitch paid Uddo $160,000 in 2012 according this December 28, 2012 NOLA.com article. Guess it's easy to have the opinion you want written when you have that specific person on your payroll!

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/new_orleans_city_c.html

This is true as well.  Mr Uddo was employed by the city when he was tapped to write the legal opinion that absolved the JV/PSC attorneys from any potential conflicts of interest.

The JV/PSC contracts break down like this:

JV/PSC attorneys represent - Entire Gulf Coast region and City of New Orleans

The argument was that their role in that litigation would be a conflict of interest if they were allowed to represent:

The Wisner Trust

To prove there was no conflict of interest, the JV/PSC attorneys sought a legal opinion from attorney, Basille Uddo, which they submitted to Federal Judge Carl Barbier.  Barbier ruled there was no conflict "at this time".  He apparently made that ruling based solely on Uddo's opinion.

However, there was another opinion that contradicted Uddo's made by the Louisiana State Bar Association.

The current question I'm examining is, "Did the JV/PSC attorneys present Judge Barbier with the dissenting opinion of the Louisiana State Bar Association by attorney, Eric Barefield?

And as a matter of diligence, Anonymous told me to check and see if Uddo had donated to Mayor Landrieu's campaign fund.  I found one donation in April, 2011:



I've only looked at three years so far:  2012; 2011; 2010.  I invite all zombies to dig in that crypt at their leisure.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "client" can waive any conflicts...

Jason Brad Berry said...

"The client" in this case, The Wisner Trust, most certainly did not waive any conflicts.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Excuse me, The Wisner heirs did not wave the conflict. The City and its two crony board members may have voted to waive the conflict but as part II spelled out, the board has been manipulated and stacked to do whatever the Mayor wants.

Kevin said...

Not that it is meaningful or anything, but here is a factoid of sorts:

There was (is) a case in the CDC known as the New Orleans Tank Car Leakage Fire Litigation (NOTX Litigation) - it's a class action settlement arising from another sad chapter in New Orleans' history. Mitch Landrieu and/or his firm was appointed to a deputy or assistant special master position in that case. I believe he and/or his firm assisted with claims management or something similar.

I believe Patrick Juneau was the Special Master in the NOTX case.

Perhaps the court-appointed Wisner counsel can use that long-established relationship in their favor when negotiating on behalf of the city and the Donation, especially those Wisner counsel that were also on the NOTX PSC.

Kevin said...

http://theadvocate.com/news/elections/5189018-123/poll-mitch-landrieu-vitter-in

Kevin said...

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/02/new_orleans_mayor_mitch_landri_24.html#incart_river_default

Jason Brad Berry said...

Yeah I saw it. Funny how they name the usual gamut as "trial lawyers" then only list the Fayard contributions in 2012.

The Hermans combined contributions add up to approximately $38,600...over half the 10%.

I think Ryan Berni wrote that article and Rich Rainey signed his name to it.

Kevin said...

Now that you've been fact-checked, the reliability and credibility of the rest of the information shouldn't be in much doubt.

Jason Brad Berry said...

And we haven't even made the new tally on the added contributions you pointed out. I'm sure the total is over 10% by now, I think it's over 100k of the 755.8k.

I'm just blown away by that article.

Jason Brad Berry said...

And Kevin it's never really a matter of the veracity of the information or facts, it's how that information is cherry picked and spun. Case in point.