Sometime in the late 1990s, I was approached by friends about buying Grant Street Dancehall. We would pool our money for the purchase, and I would run the club. At the time, Grant Street was an institution in Lafayette. Everyone who was anyone in live music had played at Grant Street. Local, regional, and national acts. And pretty much any type of music from rock to zydeco, to Cajun, to blues. I was there for about five years, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. My favorite na

In 1983, attorney Jim Roy had a terrific idea. He, together with friends, would form a private club, for the purpose of having a huge party every year. The party would be very similar to a Mardi Gras Ball, but it would take the place in October and would feature bands from the sixties, playing their original hits. It would be called the Cricket Club. The idea was an overwhelming success. At some point, Jim decided it would be a good idea to enlist the aid of someone experienc

Pretty much everyone who knows me well, knows that I am a huge fan of live music. Sadly, my older brother got all the musical talent in the family, and I got none. Sometime in the early 1980s, I started promoting concerts. Mostly club shows and mostly R&B and funk. Small stuff but fun to do. One day, out of the blue, I got a phone call from Al Harris, the manager of the Lake Charles Civic Center. Over the phone, Mr. Harris related to me a story that he had been talking with a

Deciding late to go to Law School, it turned out that the LSAT would only be given once more before the deadline to apply for admission to go to LSU Law School. Naturally, I applied for that last test, which was to be given in Baton Rouge. On that winter day in 1973, as fate (and my luck) would have it, the day before the test a snow and ice storm hit South Louisiana, closing the interstate to Baton Rouge. The “old” way to Baton Rouge was still open, going through Opelousas a

During my third year of college at U.S.L, I was living in Voorhies dormitory. My father, who lived in Las Vegas, would call me every Sunday at 6:00 P.M. Since no one had phones in their room, and cell phones had not been invented, I had to make sure that the pay phone in the hall was not being used when he called. On one Sunday, while I was waiting for my father’s call, I came across some guys in the dorm talking about Law School. Curious, I asked, “What does it take to get i

My father, Johnny Ashy, was one of the original employees of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. After my father dealt cards and dice for several years at various casinos in Las Vegas, he was hired as Pit Boss for Blackjack when Caesars opened. At that time in the 1960s, Frank Sinatra was one of the biggest names in entertainment. In his personal life, Mr. S (as he was known) lived hard and he gambled just as hard. As it turned out, my father was the only person at Caesars P

It is important to remember that no attorney can honestly promise you that they will win your criminal case. However, with hard work and understanding of the law and how the system operates, it is possible to win a case or get a good result at the minimum. That is why it is so vital to hire an experienced criminal attorney. Simply put, to obtain a conviction, the prosecution must prove that the defendant committed every element of the crime. A simple example is an OWI/DWI cas

Shortly after graduating from LSU Law School, I was lucky enough to be hired as an associate attorney to be working for a tremendous lawyer named Joseph Korey. One day he told me to go to court for the arraignment of a certain client, and have the client plead “not guilty.” It was a simple enough task, but this was to be my first court appearance and I admit to being more than just a little bit nervous. To make matters worse, the judge was Kaliste Saloom, Jr, (current Judge

In my second year in college, I was working at Pinhook Food Mart, as a salesclerk. The grocery store was owned by Robert Mahtook and managed by Frank Camela. One Saturday, into the store, walked Edwin Edwards, who had just been elected Louisiana Governor for the first time. He took his time walking around the store, greeting everyone who was there. When he got to me, I told him my name and I said, “Governor, I believe that you know my father, Johnny Ashy.” That stopped him co

It would be a mistake to look at pretrial intervention as a “One Size Fits All” program. Once a person has been arrested, AFTER a matter of weeks (generally), their arrest report and supporting documents will be sent to the District Attorney’s Office. The arrest report contains the arresting police officer’s version of the facts surrounding the arrest. In other words, just the police officer’s side of the story. At this point, the District Attorney might offer pretrial interv