Vehicle stolen from Picayune policeman's Poplarville home found in Bogalusa scrap yard

Billy Ray Briggs

Richard Hawker Rome, of Carriere, Miss., was in big trouble with law enforcement a few months back, being cited on 461 counts of purchasing a motor vehicle without a title.

And it seems to have happened again.

That’s because a Picayune police officer had his 1996 Ford Ranger stolen on April 22 from his Poplarville home. Then, at the end of May, he found his truck, sitting on blocks, at Rome’s business, Rome’s Recycling, located just outside the Bogalusa city limit.

The vehicle, without title, was sold to Rome’s by an individual who got it from the two persons who stole it from the policeman.

Debra Ann Kendrick

After the officer, unidentified for security reasons, located his vehicle, Pearl River County Sheriff’s Det. Rob Williams was able to get information on the individual who sold the vehicle to Rome’s based on records from the business. After contacting that person, he learned that a pair of Pearl River County residents, 41-year-old Billy Ray Briggs and 44-year-old Debra Ann Kendrick, had sold it to the individual.

Williams learned that Briggs and Kendrick had stolen the vehicle and found them both — in custody with the Picayune Police Department on unrelated charges.

Both Kendrick and Briggs were arrested as soon as they had completed their previous sentence on June 2. Kendrick’s list of charges includes no driver’s license, no insurance, DUI and grand larceny, while Briggs is now being held only on a grand larceny charge.

Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Shane Tucker told the Picayune Item that the man who sold the truck to the junk yard is facing charges in Washington Parish related to the theft.

Attempts to contact the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office to learn the identity of the selling party and charges filed in connection with case were unsuccessful Friday.

In February, Rome was charged with 501 counts of selling a motor vehicle as scrap without a permit, 461 counts of purchasing a motor vehicle without title or affidavit of ownership, one count of not keeping required records and one count of scrapping a vehicle without a license to crush.

At that time, Rome was able to remain open, and Police Chief Joe Culpepper told the Bogalusa newspaper he believed the recycler was no longer accepting cars or trucks.


Obviously not.

Supreme Court ruling second for parish in less than six months

A second ruling this year by the Louisiana Supreme Court in favor of the assessment process employed by Washington Parish is good news for the parish.

Randy Seal

In February, the high court denied an appeal of a ruling by Florida Gas Transmission that would have resulted in the parish having to refund $971,308.42.

Now, the court has dismissed an appeal filed by Southern Natural Gas Pipeline that would have resulted in more than $800,000 having to be refunded.

The ruling means the contested money may now be released from escrow and used to help fund the day-to-day operations of the parish.

The court fight is one that began more than a decade ago, when a group of oil-related businesses, including Southern Natural Gas Pipeline and Florida Gas Transmission, challenged the way the State of Louisiana assessed the value of its property.

What was happening, explained Washington Parish Tax Assessor Randy Seals, is that the state tax commission set the taxable value at 25 percent and the companies didn't think that was fair.

"They told the court that rather than 25 percent of the value placed on their business, they thought they should pay 15 percent of fair market value, like all other businesses. The court agreed, but said local assessors should do a formal assessment of the properties involved and go from there."

Seal said, in short, the companies didn't like the way the tax was configured to begin with — and didn’t like the new rule that was established.

"They discovered that 15 percent of fair market value might be higher than the taxes they were paying under the old rules," he said.

So, back in December 2006, Seal started asking the taxing entities in Washington Parish to authorize a resolution allowing him to hire an attorney to sue Southern Natural Gas, with the attorney working on a contingency.

Seal said the oil-related businesses had an advantage over the affected taxing entities because of the cost of a court fight. At the time, the attorney general ruled the tax money in question would be held in escrow and that local courts would have jurisdiction.

Seal said there was no appreciable difference in the amounts collected under the old and new methods, despite the difference in percentages.

"They (Southern Natural Gas) wanted to tell us what their values are," Seal said. "It would be just like any business operator in the parish saying they didn't want to pay any taxes this year and us not being able to do anything about it. They didn't like it the first way ... now, they don't like the way their suit turned out ... they can't have it all ways.”

In May 2007, Florida Gas Transmission, by this time known as El Paso Natural Gas, notified council members they wanted to appeal their assessment, which was upheld by the council.

Then, in September 2008, the Louisiana Tax Commission ruled that Washington Parish would have to return $1.5 million in taxes paid under protest. That ruling was overturned by Judge Peter Garcia in 22^nd District Judicial Court in February 2009, which led to the appeal to the state supreme court.

Affected entities included Washington Parish, Washington Parish Schools, Washington Parish Hospital Service District 1 (Riverside Medical Center), Washington Parish Sheriff, Florida Parishes Juvenile Center and three fire districts.