Petition to Enforce Laws Fairly , and to Investigate Corruption in Iberville Parish
- by: James Platt
- recipient: Office of the LA Attorney General, investigation division/Karen St. Germain, LA State Representative, 60th DistrictRobert Marionneaux,LA State Senator 17th District/
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED,
Do request that the citizen Michael Shawn Sandlin of Maringouin, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, be subjected to the same laws as all other citizens of the state and parish; and, that the Iberville Parish authorities be investigated for possible corruption and gross incompetence.
Mr. Sandlin owns a business in Grosse Tete that has been in violation of Iberville Parish Code for SIXTEEN YEARS, and in violation of LA state law for THREE YEARS- with no consequences.
Iberville Parish Code Section 3-91, promulgated in 1993, says: " No person shall keep or allow to be kept on his premises any wild, exotic, vicious animal or reptile for display or for exhibition purposes whether gratuitously or for a fee." Mr. Sandlin's business, the Tiger Truck Stop, has been doing exactly this from January of 1988 to the present day. On March 17, 2009 the Iberville Parish Council revised their Ordinance 3-91 to allow Mr. Sandlin to circumvent this code under special conditions and a one month grace period was written into it so he would have time to comply. As of the date of the authoring of this petition- 9/24/09- he has yet to comply. The Iberville authorities gave him a pending permit anyway, in violation of their own codes, both original and revised versions. In the interim from 1993 to 2009- a sixteen year period- there was absolutely no law enforcement of this code violation by any level of authorities in Grosse Tete/ Iberville Parish/ State of Louisiana. Now that the revised ordinance is not being complied with, there is once again no enforcement against this business or its owner.
The state agency responsible for this matter is the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries. They revised the law about keeping wild quadrupeds on 8/15/06. It made it illegal to keep tigers in the state, except by LSU. See Title 76, Part V. The WLF has refused up to the present day to inspect the Tiger Truck Stop, citing a lawsuit filed by Mr. Sandlin. This suit (Number 67,287 in Division B), basically states that he does not want to comply with the law so he shouldn't have to. In the meantime, he is still in violation of numerous aspects of both the state and parish laws.
The state should enforce its laws fairly on all, even against citizens that sue the state. The parish should also enforce its ordinances fairly on all, even against citizens who sue the parish. This concept has obviously escaped these authorities.
The particular violations of the ordinance and the state law are well known and are posted in many places on the internet, side by side with the laws referred to. For more detail, you can see the pages listed at the bottom of this petition.
The Iberville Parish authorities, especially the Council, has repeatedly ignored hundreds of requests for information from its constituents for access to documents and even simple answers to questions. The WLF has been sending out a non-informative form letter via email. As citizens, we demand answers to our questions and access to public documents.
We also ask that all involved be investigated for their non-enforcement of law over long periods of time, and their unusual favoritism for this one wealthy businessman.
further information can be found at:
laws and other documents (PDF)
background, resources, and revised ordinance
Thank you for your consideration of this matter,
Signed,
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED,
Do request that the citizen Michael Shawn Sandlin of Maringouin, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, be subjected to the same laws as all other citrizens of the state and parish; and, that the Iberville Parish authorities be investigated for possible corruption and gross incompetence.
Mr. Sandlin owns a business in Grosse Tete that has been in violation of Iberville Parish Code for SIXTEEN YEARS, and in violation of LA state law for THREE YEARS- with no consequences.
Iberville Parish Code Section 3-91, promulgated in 1993, says: " No person shall keep or allow to be kept on his premises any wild, exotic, vicious animal or reptile for display or for exhibition purposes whether gratuitously or for a fee." Mr. Sandlin's business, the Tiger Truck Stop, has been doing exactly this from January of 1988 to the present day. On March 17, 2009 the Iberville Parish Council revised their Ordinance 3-91 to allow Mr. Sandlin to circumvent this code under special conditions and a three month grace period was written into it so he would have time to comply. As of the date of the authoring of this petition- 9/24/09- he has yet to comply. The Iberville authorities gave him a pending permit anyway, in violation of their own codes, both original and revised versions. In the interim from 1993 to 2009- a sixteen year period- there was absolutely no law enforcement of this code violation by any level of authorities in Grosse Tete/ Iberville Parish/ State of Louisiana. Now that the revised ordinance is not being complied with, there is once again no enforcement against this business or its owner.
The state agency responsible for this matter is the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries. They revised the law about keeping wild quadrupeds on 8/15/06. It made it illegal to keep tigers in the state, except by LSU. See Title 76, Part V. The WLF has refused up to the present day to inspect the Tiger Truck Stop, citing a lawsuit filed by Mr. Sandlin. This suit (Number 67,287 in Division B), basically states that he does not want to comply with the law so he shouldn't have to. In the meantime, he is still in violation of numerous aspects of both the state and parish laws.
The state should enforce its laws fairly on all, even against citizens that sue the state. The parish should also enforce its ordinances fairly on all, even against citizens who sue the parish. This concept has obviously escaped these authorities.
The particular violations of the ordinance and the state law are well known and are posted in many places on the internet, side by side with the laws referred to. For more detail, you can see the pages listed at the bottom of this petition.
The Iberville Parish authorities, especially the Council, has repeatedly ignored hundreds of requests for information from its constituents for access to documents and even simple answers to questions. The WLF has been sending out a non-informative form letter via email. As citizens, we demand answers to our questions and access to public documents.
We also ask that all involved be investigated for their non-enforcement of law over long periods of time, and their unusual favoritism for this one wealthy businessman.
further information can be found at:
http://tigertruckstop.wordpress.com/
http://savetonythetiger.blogspot.com/
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/FreeTony.htm
Thank you for your consideration of this matter,
Signed,
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