EMBARRASSMENT INDEX

FOR THE LOUISIANA AUCTIONEER'S

 LICENSING BOARD (LALB)

BY BOARD MEMBER

 Convicted Felon Larry S. Bankston

(Attorney)

LAPA began audiotaping and videotaping LALB meetings on August 2, 2010.  Accordingly, LAPA has no recorded evidence of embarrassments before that date.

LARRY S. BANKSTON began working for the LALB on March 9, 2012 (though his hiring was not formally approved by the Board until May 21, 2012). 

January 13, 2015

 LALB Attorney Larry S. Bankston, almost certainly at the urging of Executive Assistant
Sandy Edmonds, who has previously been cited by the Office of Inspector General
for payroll fraud, advises Board Members to resist LAPA Vice President
Robert Burns' project to inspect ALL auctioneer files over a 3-4 year period.
Mr. Bankston's performance prompted Burns to author this Louisiana Voice article which
was distributed out to the approximate 3,000 subscribers the next day.  On 2/16/15,  Louisiana Voice
founder Tom Aswell drafted an extensive article which referenced AG James "Buddy" Caldwell's
lack of aggression on pursuing such blatant efforts as those of Mr. Bankston to block public transparency.
The following material is an except from Mr. Aswell's 2/16/15 post (bold and red emphasis is LAPA's): 

From: “Martiny, Sen. (Chamber Laptop)” <dmartiny@legis.la.gov>

To: “C.B. Forgotston” Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2015 16:16:34 -0600 Subject:

Re: Where’s Buddy?

Take me off your list until u do something positive about anyone.

Martiny was responding to Forgotston’s “Where’s Buddy” post in which he took Attorney
General Buddy Caldwell to task for the AG’s reluctance to do his job in telling the Caddo Parish
Commissioners they are in violation of the Louisiana State Constitution by virtue of their
 illegal participation in the Caddo Parish retirement system.  Forgotston noted that Legislative Auditor Daryl
Purpera has done his job in saying commissioners’ participation in the retirement system is illegal but
 Caldwell, as has been his M.O. since taking office, has been strangely quiet on public corruption.
And while there is certainly nothing wrong in going after free-lance pharmaceutical salesmen
(drug dealers), child pornographers and the like, Caldwell has displayed an obvious dislike
 for making waves in the political waters and has steadfastly run from public corruption cases.
And we know that while the 1974 State Constitution took much of the prosecutorial duties
 from the attorney general, the AG is still the legal adviser for all state agencies and if nothing else,
Caldwell should step forward and whisper in officials’ ears when they are seen skirting
 the edge of the law. (Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols’ open violation of the state’s
public records law comes immediately to mind.   So does Auctioneer Board attorney Larry
 Bankston’s advice to the board to actually refuse to release public records.)

LAPA Vice President Robert Burns supplied Ms. Emalie Boyce of AG Buddy Caldwell's office with the preceding excerpt by
Tom Aswell, and the NEXT DAY he received notice from Bankston that his 2nd set of 10 auctioneer files were ready for
inspection.  Should the LALB follow through on Bankston's guidance, several attorneys are salivating at suing over such
an action on the LALB's part.  Mr. Bankston did make it clear that, despite previous correspondence from his office
 indicating Edmonds was custodian of records (and thus subject to $100/day fine for public records delays), it is actually
 Board Chairman Tessa Steinkamp who holds that designation and would be liable for any unreasonable public records inspections delays.

November 5, 2014

Upon finding out that Brant Thompson, son of Louisiana State Senator Francis
 Thompson (D-Delhi), succeeded in obtaining a bond payment for his alleged losses entailing
 deceased auctioneer Bruce Miller, Judy Fasola expresses her frustrations with the LALB.  Those frustrations entail
Ms. Fasola asserting that she was victimized by notoriously-problematic auctioneer Ken Buhler and his father, Mac. 
Specifically, Ms. Fasola was frustrated that LALB attorney Anna Dow, after having her jump through all of the hoops to file
a bond claim, reversed course and refused to file a claim for her.  During her presentation, Ms. Fasola managed
to catch the LALB members in one contradiction after another as evidenced by the historical
 LALB video excerpts merged into the above video clip.  During the clip, LALB attorney Larry S. Bankston
displays his usual abrasive, rude tactics (beginning at the 1:05 mark) in refusing to permit LAPA Vice President Robert Burns
to correct Vice Chairman James Sims' inaccurate timeframe of when Ken Buhler's restrictions were lifted.
In so doing, Mr. Bankston enabled Mr. Sims to make a fool up himself repeatedly!

February 20, 2014

Mr. Bankston is VERY, VERY emphatic that ONLY LAPA President Rev. Freddie Phillips will be permitted to examine Jean Vidos' auction file (no guests), only to, upon apparently having been dealt with by a higher authority, send an email immediately thereafter indicating he will readily accommodate guests for such a viewing.

February 6, 2014:

LAPA Vice President Robert Burns Readily Demonstrates How Ill-Prepared Larry S. Bankston
 Was for a Deposition in Readily Demonstrating Bankston Was Not Even Familiar
With THE PLEADINGS THEMSELVES!!

August 28, 2013

Mr. Bankston suffers utterly humiliating courtroom defeat after pursuing ill-advised Writ of Attachment against LAPA Vice President Robert Burns

March 5, 2013:

 
 Bankston, beginning at the 4:00 mark, explains his rationale for recommending LAPA's website link NOT be
added to the LALB's webpage of links.

May 21, 2012

 
From the 3:10 - 3:30 mark of the video above,
Board Member Darlene Jacobs-Levy strongly encourages the hiring of
 attorney Larry S. Bankston, even saying, "he's never been censured by any court
that I'm aware of and, as I said, I've been practicing for 42 years, so if he had been,
 I think I would know about it."  Reality:  Bankston is a convicted felon who served
 33 months of a 41-month Federal prison sentence for accepting a bribe while serving
as a State Senator.  He was also fined $20,000, and his license was also revoked by the Louisiana
 Supreme Court.  Bankston, who was present for Ms. Jacobs-Levy's widely
inaccurate statements, chose not to say a word to correct her inaccurate portrayal of him.