Recreational lawsuit filer and convicted double murderer Brandon Lavergne managed to get one of his frivolous suits all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Or at least to the receptionist, who put it in the circular file.
No, it’s true. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Lavergne’s appeal of a federal judge’s dismissal of his lawsuit against Busted in Acadiana, the sleazy crime website that, like the many reputable media outlets in the area, posted stories on Lavergne’s arrest and guilty plea for the murders of Mickey Shunick and Lisa Pate. (It’s worth noting that Busted in Acadiana’s website currently has up a story written by The Advocate — pasted, word-for-word, with Advocate photography — with no credit or attribution.)
Lavergne has filed well over a dozen lawsuits since his incarceration began in late summer of 2012. Targets of his litigiousness include the sheriff’s offices in Lafayette and Acadia parishes, a former cellmate, his ex-wife, the Lafayette district attorney, Lafayette Police, his sister, Dateline NBC, this newspaper and virtually every other newspaper and TV news station in town. Because we said mean things about him!
As a legal source who alerted us to this latest foolishness at SCOTUS tells us Lavergne’s appeal probably didn’t even get past a screening clerk at SCOTUS, who would have flagged it as “frivolous and malicious.”
“That’s probably more than Mr. Lavergne deserved,” our source says, adding, “I do take some pleasure in the fact that each dismissal may cause him to experience frustration. A lifetime of constant frustration behind bars may be a more fitting punishment than a lifetime of free meals and rent without frustration.”