lopinto
<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></h3><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/28/st-charles-parish-louisiana-sheriff-pipeline-records-standing-rock" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/28/st-charles-parish-louisiana-sheriff-pipeline-records-standing-rock</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On December 27, a state* appeals court <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2018-12-27-St-Charles-Sheriffs-Office-Appeal-Ruling.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">ordered a Louisiana’s sheriff’s department</a> and its sheriff to release information about its officers’ trip to North Dakota during the heated protests against the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Dakota Access pipeline</a> in 2016.</b> 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 Louisiana’s St. Charles Parish, flooded North Dakota to support it via an interstate agreement.</font></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latest move reversed a decision by a district court, which denied a public records request made by the <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center for Constitutional Rights</a> (<span class="caps">CCR</span>), a human rights law firm which has worked on behalf of environmental groups* in Louisiana, after parish law enforcement spoke out against Dakota Access pipeline opponents and endorsed the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Bayou Bridge pipeline</a>, a similar oil pipeline in Louisiana.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We saw a dangerous blurring of the lines between law enforcement and private corporations at Standing Rock,” Pamela Spees, a senior staff attorney with <span class="caps">CCR</span>, <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/human-rights-attorneys-sue-louisiana-sheriff-records-related-0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">stated</a> when first filing suit for the public records in December 2017.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spees, who was raised in Lake Charles, one of the communities that will be affected by the Bayou Bridge pipeline, is leading a lawsuit by Louisiana environmental groups seeking public records from<b> St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne</b>. She was also an attorney in a lawsuit against Bayou Bridge Pipeline, <span class="caps">LLC</span>, which so far has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/07/bayou-bridge-pipeline-trespass-fine-aaslestads-atchafalaya-louisiana" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">unsuccessfully challenged the company's right</a> to use eminent domain to confiscate land to build the pipeline, which is nearly operational. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Dakota Access pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer (formerly known as Energy Transfer Partners), the principal owner of the also-contested Bayou Bridge pipeline, a 163-mile-long pipeline that cuts across southern Louisiana from St. Charles, near the Texas border, to St. James, on the Mississippi River. Despite ongoing legal battles in federal and state courts, the Bayou Bridge pipeline has been nearly completed. </font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Louisiana Sheriffs, a Pipeline Company, and a Private Security Firm</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a <span class="caps">CCR</span> <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/human-rights-attorneys-sue-louisiana-sheriff-records-related-0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">press release</a>, the center’s request “also seeks to investigate larger connections among <span class="caps">SCPSO</span> [St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office], Sheriff Champagne, Energy Transfer Partners (<span class="caps">ETP</span>), and TigerSwan <span class="caps">LLC</span>, in light of <span class="caps">ETP</span>’s proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline project in Louisiana.” </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TigerSwan, a private security firm involved in the Dakota Access response but <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/30/tigerswan-lisa-smith-security-license-louisiana-bayou-bridge-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">denied a license to operate in Louisiana</a>, is a corporate donor to the National Sheriffs’ Association’s $3.46 million budget, according to the association’s most recent tax forms. Under Sheriff Champagne’s leadership, 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 disclosure forms by <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/21/louisiana-emac-bayou-bridge-dakota-access" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Steve Horn for DeSmog</a>. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The center’s <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/no-bayou-bridge-pipeline-st-charles-parish-petition-public-records" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">public records request, filed September 18, 2017</a>, was made after St. Charles Parish’s Sheriff Greg Champagne and others connected to law enforcement, including Joseph Lopinto, the newly elected sheriff of Jefferson Parish who spoke on behalf of the National Sheriffs’ Association <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/14/clash-over-bayou-bridge-pipeline-ratchets-after-louisiana-pipeline-explosion" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">at a Bayou Bridge permit hearing</a>, publicly criticized pipeline opponents. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time of his October 2016 <a href="http://www.thv11.com/news/local-sheriff-shares-testimony-from-north-dakota-experience/346183392" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">visit to Standing Rock</a>, Sheriff Champagne was also the president of the National Sheriffs’ Association and made largely unsubstantiated claims about the Dakota Access protests against the pipeline. In a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sheriff.gregchampagne/posts/1337399006279642" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Facebook post </a>Champagne wrote: “Despite 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) have destroyed property and physically beaten employees of the company in recent weeks."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[lopinto vid]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2017 Sheriff Lopinto voiced support for the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a permit hearing in which he claimed that Dakota Access protesters shot at law enforcement officers. “We don’t want the same thing occurring in Louisiana,” he said. </font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Were North Dakota Trip Photos and Videos Destroyed?</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 North Dakota.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 the materials. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Captain Yoes testified that “the files from the devices were loaded on a hard drive, and he provided all of the files relating to the <span class="caps">EMAC</span> [Emergency Management Assistance Compact] to the [North Dakota Morton] county’s sheriff and the public information officer.” 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 been preserved.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 Bridge pipeline. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Champagne could appeal the federal court’s decision with the Louisiana Supreme Court. I reached out to Champagne’s communications officer but did not receive a response. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">*Update 12/29/18: This story has been updated to reflect that a state, not federal, appeals court reversed the decision and that <span class="caps">CCR</span> filed the public records request and lawsuit, which was not filed on behalf of environmental groups.</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/joe_lopinto_jefferson_sheriff.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " benton="Benton" sans="Sans" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">Lopinto didn't shy away from controversial issues either. He introduced pieces of legislation to allow earlier release of prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes. He sponsored a bill that would have diverted people from prison to drug treatment as well. Many of the proposals he introduced five years ago were forerunners to the sweeping criminal justice overhaul the Legislature approved this past spring, after he left.</span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; font-family: " benton="Benton" sans="Sans" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color">Lopinto was also one of the primary advocates of expanding gun rights in the Legislature. He backed legislation that expanded the list of places where people with conceal carry permits could take their weapons. He was often aligned with the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, and tried to steer millions of dollars in funding toward their operations while in the statehouse. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; font-family: " benton="Benton" sans="Sans" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color">...</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Joseph Peter Lopinto, III</b>, known as <b>Joe Lopinto</b> (born June 11, 1976), is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer" title="Lawyer" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">attorney</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metairie,Louisiana" title="Metairie, Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Metairie</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana" title="Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louisiana</a>, who was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Republican</a> member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Legislature" title="Louisiana State Legislature" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louisiana House of Representatives</a> from District 80 in suburban <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Parish,Louisiana" title="Jefferson Parish, Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Jefferson Parish</a> outside <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans,Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="New Orleans, Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Orleans</a>.</p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lopinto graduated from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic" class="mw-redirect" title="Roman Catholic" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Roman Catholic</a>-affiliated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyola_University_New_Orleans" title="Loyola University New Orleans" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Loyola University</a> and its law school, from which he received the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Arts" title="Bachelor of Arts" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bachelor of Arts</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Juris Doctor</a> degrees.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lopinto was elected to the legislature in 2007 to succeed the term-limited Republican <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_D.Lancaster,Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="Charles D. Lancaster, Jr." style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Charles D. Lancaster, Jr.</a>, whose initial service had dated to 1972-1976 and again from 1980-2008. In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpartisan_blanket_primary" title="Nonpartisan blanket primary" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">nonpartisan blanket primary</a>, Lopinto defeated fellow Republican Glenn Lee, 6,170 (58.6 percent) to 4,357 (41.4 percent).<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He has been the vice chair of the House Commerce Committee and a member of the Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> In 2010, Lopinto supported the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Association_of_Business_and_Industry" title="Louisiana Association of Business and Industry" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louisiana Association of Business and Industry</a> 88 percent of the time and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Family_Forum" title="Louisiana Family Forum" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louisiana Family Forum</a> 100 percent. In 2009, he was ranked 100 percent by the Louisiana <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Life" class="mw-redirect" title="Right to Life" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Right to Life</a> Federation.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[4]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lopinto was reelected to the House in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpartisan_blanket_primary" title="Nonpartisan blanket primary" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">nonpartisan blanket primary</a> held on October 22, 2011.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[5]</a></sup>Lopinto also holds the District 80 seat on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Republican_Party" class="mw-redirect" title="Louisiana Republican Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louisiana Republican State Central Committee</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[6]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Entering his third and final House term on January 11, 2016, Lopinto has announced that he will cross party lines to support the Democrat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Leger,III" class="mw-redirect" title="Walt Leger, III" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Walt Leger, III</a>, of New Orleans for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_Louisiana_House_of_Representatives" class="mw-redirect" title="Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives</a>, the choice of incoming <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="Governor of Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Governor</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bel_Edwards" title="John Bel Edwards" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">John Bel Edwards</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[7]</a></sup> However, in an upset, lawmakers chose not Leger as Speaker but <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Iberia,Louisiana" title="New Iberia, Louisiana" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Iberia</a> Republican <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Barras" title="Taylor Barras" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Taylor Barras</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lopinto#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[8]</a></sup></p></h3><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></h3><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dakota Access Owner Coordinates with Sheriffs</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As protests heated up at Standing Rock in October, the Morton County Sheriffs' Department <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/business/national-sheriffs-group-pledges-help-with-pipeline-policing/article_6b4b666e-a23b-563b-b116-95e996b28cd1.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">requested support</a> from the Sheriffs' Association, which coincided with out-of-state cops flooding the state in assistance.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In December, DeSmog reported on an audio recording first obtained and published by New York Daily News writer Shaun King, in which Energy Transfer Partners executive Matthew Ramsey said that the Sheriffs' Association <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/12/15/audio-dakota-access-pipeline-election-night-changed-everything" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">worked in close coordination</a> with his company, the pipeline's majority owner, against those opposing it at Standing Rock. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>We met with some of the officials in North Dakota [during a recent trip to the state],” said Ramsey in the recording. “We met with the National Sheriff's Association.</b> People are tired of this. They're tired of seeing what's going on in the community and we think that the tide has turned and people are understanding what a great project this would be for the State of North Dakota.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, the Sheriffs’ Association did send training staff and office personnel to Standing Rock. The group tasked Dane County, Wisconsin Sheriff Dave Mahoney with training North Dakota agencies, which had little experience policing protests.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When the situation in North Dakota began over the pipeline, I had been asked by the National Sheriff’s Association and by the Department of Justice to travel to North Dakota to speak to the sheriffs who didn’t have much experience with large gatherings,” Mahoney said in an interview.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While adamant his police force handled the response in Standing Rock in the same peaceful way as in <b>2011, when the Dane County Sheriff's Office handled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_protests" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">over 100,000 people protesting</a> Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill, </b>the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/22/taxpayer-funded-horror-at-standing-rock.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">results in North Dakota tell a different story</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Greg Champagne, president of the National Sheriffs' Association and sheriff of St. Charles Parish in Louisiana</b>, was also intimately involved in Standing Rock. In late October, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Champagne traveled there for a publicity appearance, which was funded by the <span class="caps">EMAC</span> agreement. He was toured around the police lines and the construction sites, afterwards posting on Facebook a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sheriff.gregchampagne/posts/1337399006279642" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lengthy rebuttal</a> to protesters and the media, which received 46,000 shares.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office also sent two cameramen to video the cleanup after the eviction of demonstrators </span>at one of the Standing Rock encampments. An open records request for that footage is still pending.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For its part, the Sheriffs’ Association told DeSmog, “What we were trying to do was help the local sheriffs, as a national organization, to coordinate the actions through the <span class="caps">EMAC</span> to get them people that would make themselves available.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The association added that although the intent of its coordination was not to train law enforcement officials present at Standing Rock, that “per things like this, there is always training going on and coordinated tactics between North Dakota, Wyoming, Wisconsin or whoever else was there. We are also helpful with guidance and coordinating the knowledge as well by having people there like Dave [Mahoney, the Dane County Sheriff] who have better knowledge of large protest gatherings.”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sheriffs Tackle Bayou Bridge</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the aftermath of Standing Rock, the Sheriffs' Association has remained active on pipelines owned by Energy Transfer Partners, including its proposed <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bayou Bridge pipeline</a> through Louisiana.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/14/clash-over-bayou-bridge-pipeline-ratchets-after-louisiana-pipeline-explosion" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DeSmog previously reported</a>, Joseph Lopinto — an attorney with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana and <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/06/state_rep_joe_lopinto_set_to_r.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">former Republican state legislator</a> — criticized the federal government's Standing Rock response while speaking on behalf of the National Sheriffs’ Association at a February public meeting related to the Bayou Bridge pipeline.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vid]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The federal government failed to provide local law enforcement [in Standing Rock, North Dakota] with support to control hostile, often violent protesters that caused millions of dollars in property damage and shot at law enforcement officers,” he said at the convening. “The federal government failed to provide local law enforcement with the resources they need to deal with violent and unruly protests.”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Policing Protest</font></h3><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/14/clash-over-bayou-bridge-pipeline-ratchets-after-louisiana-pipeline-explosion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joseph Lopinto, an attorney from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office who spoke on behalf of the National Sheriffs’ Association, seemed to relish enraging project opponents. “The federal government failed to provide local law enforcement [in Standing Rock, North Dakota] with support to control hostile, often violent protesters that caused millions of dollars in property damage and shot at law enforcement officers,” he said, while the pipeline opponents yelled so loud his testimony was almost inaudible. </font></span></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>We don’t want the same thing occurring here in Louisiana,” he said. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><span class="player" style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; display: block;" /></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pipeline Opponents Push Back</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cherri Foytlin, director of the environmental advocacy group Bold Louisiana, objected to Lopinto’s claim that water protectors shot at anyone in Standing Rock, saying that was a lie. She also countered the claim that the pipeline was a great job creator, pointing out that “the jobs will come and go faster than it took to clean the Kalamazoo River,” which is still feeling the impacts of a tar sands spill that happened six years ago. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She further pointed out that Energy Transfer and Sunoco had reported 69 spills in two years and alleged that they had committed human rights violations at Standing Rock. “We are rewarding terrorist [sic] to this country,” Foytlin said before issuing a warning: “We will protect our water. We will protect our people.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/06/state_rep_joe_lopinto_set_to_r.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.013em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Louisiana state Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-<a href="http://topics.nola.com/tag/metairie/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.125em; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(9, 74, 215); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Metairie</a>, who announced in May his plans to vacate the 80th House District seat, said Wednesday (June 29) his <b>resignation</b> is effective Thursday at midnight. A date for a special election to succeed him hasn't been announced.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.013em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His term expires Jan. 13, 2020. It's up to House Speaker Taylor Barras to call the special election. Lopinto said he submitted the resignation letter to Barras last week but is unsure when the election will be held.</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">A lawyer and former Jefferson Parish deputy sheriff, Lopinto has said he is stepping away from elected office to </span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">spend more time with his young children</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">. He said he plans to work as legal counsel for Sheriff Newell Normand.</span></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>