Entergy Removes a Surveillance Camera at Life Tabernacle, Claims Not to Know Source

On Monday, Feb. 21, Entergy sent a workman to remove  a surveillance camera that had been on an Entergy electric pole on the property of Life Tabernacle Church at the corner of Hooper and Blackwater roads.

Life Tabernacle, Rev. Tony Spell, and members of the Spell family and the congregation of the church have been spied on and harassed by local police, state agencies, and federal law enforcement since March 2020 when Pastor Spell continued to hold church contrary to the orders of Gov. John Bel Edwards. The cameras went up in March 2020. At one point, there were six cameras aimed on the pastor’s house and the church. These highly sophisticated devices would allow whoever put them up to identify everyone who went to church there.

The workman who came to remove the device told Pastor Spell he saw no record of who had the camera and recording device placed on the light pole or who ordered it removed. He said he was told verbally to come out but given no paperwork.

The remaining surveillance camera is aimed directly at Rev. and Sister Spell’s bedroom window.

Rev. Spell said he noticed the cameras in April 2020.  All were identical. A neighbor across the street allowed someone to install two of the surveillance cameras on their property.

Rev. Spell said a member of his congregation has experience with these devices and said they are the type used by sophisticated organizations such as the FBI.

Rev. Spell wants to know who has been spying on him and his wife?  Who authorized the surveillance?  Did Entergy require a court order or they just do it on request.

The electric poles in question appear to be just a foot or two onto the Entergy right of way on Life Tabernacle property on Blackwater Road next to the church and parsonage.

Life Tabernacle and Rev. Spell have sued Gov. John Bel Edwards, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, and Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran for a number of violations of their First Amendment rights to Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and the Right to Assembly.  That case is pending in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The surveillance cameras are part of that suit.