Man accusing former St. Tammany Sheriff of rape admittedly had 'special treatment' during arrests, sentences

March 19-- Mar. 19--When Mark Finn got into legal trouble, he was quick to invoke then-St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain, telling officers to call "Boo-Boo," according to incident reports, and saying the boss would be angry if they dared to arrest him.

Finn's claim to a close relationship with the sheriff wasn't empty -- it was well known in St. Tammany law enforcement circles. And while the ties didn't prevent Finn from getting arrested, sources familiar with one of the arrests said it was understood within the Sheriff's Office: If you arrested Mark Finn, you were going to have to answer a lot of questions.

It was always a puzzle: Why did a normally tough-on-crime sheriff seem to have a soft spot for Finn, someone Strain's own lawyer describes as a career criminal?

But recent revelations make the question a more urgent one.

Finn doesn't deny his criminal history, which began in 1985. But he says his connection to the sheriff is a disturbing one: Finn is one of a number of alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Strain whose claims are under investigation by state officials.

Finn says Strain, seven years his senior, began molesting him when he was 6 -- abuse he says went on until he was 12, and eventually included rape.

Strain, who is also under federal investigation for an alleged kickback scheme involving a work-release facility that was under his jurisdiction, has not been charged with a crime. His attorney, Billy Gibbens, has said Strain denies sexually abusing anyone, and that Finn's claims are "completely false."

"He has zero credibility," Gibbens has said, citing Finn's criminal history.

Gibbens did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

Finn, now 49, has been incarcerated nearly half his adult life. But he's served much of that time in the St. Tammany Parish Jail, where he was a trusty, or in a work-release program overseen by the Sheriff's Office -- arrangements where Strain had plenty of influence.

Finn had a cell phone while he was in work-release, according to one arrest report, in violation of the rules. And when he worked as a trusty, he wore street clothes instead of the typical uniform, according to a source familiar with Finn's treatment.

"You always saw Mark Finn dressed in plain clothes, blue jeans, T-shirt," the source said. "If you just walked in off the street, you wouldn't know if he was an inmate or not. He wasn't wearing trusty clothing."

Finn says he even had his own private quarters at the Slidell work-release facility. The space was modest, an attic above a tool shop, with low ceilings and visible duct work. But it had access to a kitchenette and bathroom in an adjoining office that belonged to then-Major Skip Keen -- a far cry from the barracks-like group accommodations provided to other inmates.

Keen, part of Strain's inner circle, is a lifelong friend of both Strain and Finn, and was the best man at Finn's wedding, Finn said. He's also one of two former high-ranking Sheriff's Office officials who pleaded guilty in federal court last month to being part of the kickback scheme that allegedly involved Strain.

Breaks in the courts

But those quality-of-life perks pale compared to the significant breaks Finn got from the notoriously punitive criminal justice system in St. Tammany, including charges that were dismissed or greatly reduced.

"St. Tammany is this really tough criminal jurisdiction with tough prosecutors, judges and jails," legal analyst Donald "Chick" Foret said, adding that it is unusual in such a jurisdiction for a habitual offender like Finn to get what might be termed lenient treatment.

But it appears he did. In an especially glaring example, Finn was arrested in 2012 by deputies who were trying to bust a methamphetamine lab. But sources with knowledge of the case say that Finn got off lightly, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.

Editor's note: This video contains some strong language.

Bryan Danigole, the deputy who wrote the arrest report, was transferred from narcotics to patrol, losing his spot on an FBI task force that had provided him additional pay. Sources familiar with the case say they believe Danigole, once named deputy of the year, suffered repercussions from the Finn arrest.

Finn was arrested as he and a suspected meth lab operator drove away from a pharmacy after buying Sudafed, an ingredient in meth. They were driving toward what the arrest report described as a house where meth was manufactured.

Detective Chris Comeaux wrote a detailed email about the arrest to then-Chief Deputy Fred Oswald, describing Finn as hostile and noting that he kept shouting for deputies to "call Boo-Boo." He became upset when Comeaux read him his rights, the memo said, and "began to ask why he was being arrested and for me to call Boo-Boo to find out who he was."

A detailed arrest report described wild behavior by Finn. Finn grabbed the shoulder of Comeaux, who was trying to handcuff him, and refused to let go, even spitting in Comeaux's face, according to the arrest report.

"The people who were on the scene didn't know who Mark Finn was," a source familiar with the case said. "But once ... supervisors got there and realized who we had, it was like, 'All right, we're all gonna have to answer for this.' "

Supervisors picked apart Danigole's report, the source said: "There was a lot of drama over that report, and shortly after that, he (Danigole) was put back on criminal patrol."

Danigole, who declined to talk with reporters, left the agency soon afterward.

Finn said then, and still maintains, that he knew nothing about plans to manufacture methamphetamine.

Once in jail, Finn made a series of phone calls to a girlfriend and his mother that show he was counting on help from Strain.

In tapes of those calls obtained through a public-records request, Finn can be heard urging his mother to contact "Boo-Boo" in order to ask him whether Finn should hire a lawyer.

In another call, Finn's mother tells him that Strain said he would go to the jail and talk to him. "He (Strain) said, 'Mark knows when he got out the last time, he can't have too many strikes against him,' " Finn's mother said. "He said he's gotta get that through your brain."

She added: "Boo-Boo doesn't judge you, Mark. He loves you like his own brother."

In a call placed to another person, Finn said that Strain had better help him. "He's gonna come down here and talk to me, and he's gonna do what he's gotta (expletive) do," he said.

'Something he owed me'

At another juncture, Strain seems to have intervened on Finn's behalf with the state Parole Board.

Michael Core, then a deputy chief under Strain, wrote the board in 2000 to say he and Strain were asking the board to look favorably on Finn's parole application -- and to overlook a recent arrest.

That arrest, in April 1999, was for allegedly selling illegal steroids to the deputy assigned to the Slidell work-release center while Finn was serving time there.

An arrest report in that case says Deputy Christian Garner went to the Narcotics Division, which outfitted him with a wire and had him set up a steroids buy and record it. Finn was booked with drug distribution within 1,000 feet of a school.

But the charges were dropped by District Attorney Walter Reed's office, and Garner was fired, a fact that is noted but not explained in Core's letter.

Editor's note: This video contains some strong language.

Garner's termination letter said he was fired for crimes and policy violations. But there is no record that Garner was booked with any crime in St. Tammany. Any internal affairs report that might have been made has been purged, and the audio evidence from the arrest was destroyed by court order in June 2000.

Jack Hoffstadt, then an assistant DA in charge of prosecuting career criminals, said that on its face it was a "no-lose" case.

Though Hoffstadt signed the document dropping the case, he said a decision to dump a good case against someone with a long record would have come from a supervisor.

"It was well known in the office that there were individuals and/or families who received different treatment for alleged criminal activities," Hoffstadt said.

Finn said he did sell steroids to Garner but maintains the deputy set him up. "If I didn't get him steroids, my ass would be in a bind ... bottom line, I felt threatened by him," Finn said.

After the arrest, Finn was immediately shipped to the Washington Correctional Institute near Angie. But after about 11 months, he was picked up by a van driven by a St. Tammany deputy he knew.

"He said, 'You know who' sent me over to pick you up," Finn said, which he took as a reference to Strain. In St. Tammany, he was given a lie-detector test about the steroids, which he says cleared him.

Finn freely acknowledges that he often asked Strain for help, although he says he did not do so every time he was arrested.

"The stuff he did to me as a kid, I felt like I had grounds," he said. "I felt like he owed me, after what he did to me, it's sickening ... he felt like it was something he owed me.

"Yes, he gave me special treatment," he added. "Everybody knows that."

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