Dennis Creel’s murderer still unidentified
In July of 1982, a Baton Rouge woman filed a civil lawsuit against Livingston Parish Sheriff Odom Graves and Deputy H.B. Haley for $100,000.
According to the suit filed in both U.S. District Court and the 19th Judicial District Court, Arlene Frances Gordon, 27, sought damages and attorney fees after the sheriff’s office issued a warrant charging her with murder four months earlier.
The March 16 warrant, according to the suit, alleged that Deputy Haley filed an affidavit accusing the woman of beating Denham Springs resident Dennis R. Creel to death with her bare hands and dumping his body three miles south of Interstate 12 on 4-H Club Road in Livingston Parish.
The lawsuit said Haley filed the affidavit with “malice and reckless disregard for the truth,” causing Arlene Gordon to be falsely arrested and imprisoned. The suit also claimed malicious prosecution and violation of her Fourth, Fifth, and 14th Amendment rights.
Police arrested Arlene Gordon on March 17, 1982. She remained in jail until March 23, when she passed a polygraph test.
Later that day, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s detectives dropped the second-degree murder charges against her and charged a Baton Rouge man instead. Witnesses told police they saw 22-year-old Clark Pilcher of 1488 Harco Drive beat Creel to death outside The Office Lounge on Florida Boulevard Friday night, October 30, 1981.
A farmer walking his fence line discovered Creel’s body alongside a railing just after noon on Halloween Day. Someone had tied Creel’s hands behind his back before or after beating him to death.
The coroner said Creel died of multiple head injuries eleven hours before the farmer found his body and phoned the sheriff’s office.
Eleven hours before the call to the sheriff’s office, Creel left the barroom with Clark Pilcher and Arlene Gordon.
At Clark Pilcher’s preliminary hearing Wednesday, May 12, 1982, Judge Carl Guidry found probable cause to hold him for trial. Still, he recommended a grand jury review the evidence. Four months later, on another Wednesday, September 15, 1982, a grand jury reviewed the evidence against Pilcher but refused to take action.
Sadly, Arlene Gordon’s lawsuit earned more court time than Dennis Creel’s murder.
U.S. District Judge Frank J. Polozola rejected a bid by Livingston Parish Sheriff Odom Graves and Deputy H.B. Haley to dismiss the lawsuit against them after they presumably falsely arrested the woman for murder.
The State Attorney General referred the motion to dismiss the suit to U.S. Magistrate Alton Moran, who recommended granting it. Instead, Judge Polozola converted the action into a motion requesting a summary judgment.
In the opinion, Polozola said the sheriff and deputy contended there was probable cause to support the arrest warrant and that Judge Samuel T. Rowe of the 21st Judicial District Court conducted an independent inquiry into the underlying facts supporting the woman’s arrest.
Polozola’s ruling noted that the deputy’s allegation stated that Arlene Frances Gordon “did murder one Dennis Creel on October 31 by beating him to death with her hands.”
That statement alone, Polozola said, was insufficient to warrant a finding of probable cause. The only other fact supporting the arrest in the affidavit is a statement identifying Arlene Gordon as the female who left a nightclub with the victim, which was the last time he was seen alive, the federal judge said.
However, Judge Polozola explained that even if there were malice and bad faith on the part of the deputy, previous cases have held that the law insulates police officers from such lawsuits. Therefore, the judge said he had no choice but to dismiss the case.
Arlene Gordon did not make headlines again until April 8, 1983, when Baton Rouge police arrested Teamster boss Jimmy Don “Buddy” York and his live-in girlfriend, charging them with making threatening phone calls just months after Louisiana State Police Colonel Grover “Bo” Garrison fired trooper Ben Hughes for slashing the tires on Buddy York’s Mercedes-Benz.
The State Times newspaper identified 42-year-old Buddy York’s live-in girlfriend as 28-year-old Arlene Frances Gordon.
The following year, live on WAFB-TV, with Arlene Gordon at his side, Buddy York punched a fellow teamster in a dispute over Doug Partin’s candidacy for president of Teamsters Local Number 5.
Doug Partin ran when his brother, Ed Partin, stepped down as president to serve a prison term for embezzlement and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Ed Partin’s testimony sent Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa to prison two decades earlier.
Forty years after his murder, the responsible person or persons who left Dennis Creel beaten to death and tied near a fence in Denham Springs have never been identified or punished in any way.