Stabbing death the latest incident to mar image of Catahoula Corrections Center with history of administrative problems
Stabbing death the latest incident to mar image of Catahoula Corrections Center with history of administrative problems
November 30, 2022 by tomaswell
The stabbing death of a prisoner at the Catahoula Correctional Center in Harrisonburg on Nov. 10 apparently was an “inside hit job,” an incident that officials have attempted to keep from the public, according to two sources who spoke with LouisianaVoice.
The victim even warned center officials that he would be killed if he were placed in the inmate housing unit but his pleas went unheeded and he was subsequently attacked by as many as eight other inmates.
Montrell Rogers was described by one source as a state prisoner who told correctional center officials that he had enemies in the assigned dorm but that he was forced into the unit anyway.
Harrisonburg attorney Paul Lemke said the facility has been plagued with problems for a number of years, the latest of which was the “inside hit job” on Rogers, who he said he understood had been transferred to Catahoula from East Carroll Parish.
“He (Rogers) had made somebody mad and they were waiting for him,” he said. “The Louisiana Department of Corrections (DOC) moves prisoners around in efforts to ‘lose’ them, or hide them from their attorneys and their families. And with prisoners being moved around like that, word travels from facility to facility and the word gets out” through the prison grapevine.
The other source who contacted LouisianaVoice described Rogers as a personal friend and called his death “a brutal murder.”
That person, whose identity is being withheld out of concerns for his safety, said Rogers was stabbed “by multiple inmates” and that the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Department has so far kept the incident from the news media. “The warden, Pat Book, runs a terrible prison operation,” he said. “He (Book) was allegedly under investigation years ago for cracking he skull of an inmate in his office during a used of force incident.” He said at the time of that incident, one of Book’s family members, Ronnie Book, was sheriff.
Ronnie Book was first elected sheriff of Catahoula Parish with 89 percent of the vote in October 1999.
Lemke said he had represented the inmate who was injured by Pat Book whom he identified as Anthony Day. “He was another of those who was moved around by DOC. He was brought in from Iberia Parish. He was one of those who the Iberia Parish sheriff at the time (Louis Ackal) had turned dogs loose on in the jail.”
Lemke in March 2003 filed an ethics complaint against Sheriff Ronnie Book, claiming that Pat Book, while employed at the correctional facility, was simultaneously part owner of B&B Commissary which supplied the jail with snacks, drinks, and toiletries from July 2001 to Jan. 31, 2003. That, Lemke claimed, was a conflict of interests and the Ethics Commission levied a fine of about $5,000 against the Books.
B&B Commissary, which was chartered in June 2001, one month before it began operating the commissary, is no longer in business, according to corporate records of the Louisiana Secretary of State which indicate the corporation was dissolved in May 2003, two months after Lemke filed his ethics complaint.
Lemke said that prior to awarding the contract to Pat Book and B&B (the other “B” in the name was for H. Layne Book, also listed, along with Pat Book, as a director of the company), Sheriff Ronnie Book contacted a prison commissary vendor in Arkansas to ask that they submit a bid with elevated prices “for appearances sake” for when the contract was awarded to B&B.
Lemke said the Catahoula Correctional Center was once run by private prison operator LaSalle Corrections of Ruston and that Pat Book was a LaSalle employee at that time. He said Book was also once a member of the LaSalle board of directors but LouisianaVoice was unable to confirm that.
He said the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office took over operation of the corrections center several years back. “It’s been a real mess out there,” he said. “They’ve gone nuts.” He said DOC and Louisiana State Police have had to intervene “a couple of times.”
Lemke said he does not expect charges to be filed against all of those involved in the Rogers death. “It’ll probably come down to a single person being charged because no one is going to talk to investigators,” he said.