Long before controversy gripped the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office over the decision to get hotel rooms for 13 top deputies while they helped with Carnival security, acrimony had been brewing among the agency’s top executives. In fact, according to multiple sources and a string of documents, turmoil was a constant presence deep inside the sheriff's office almost from the time Sheriff Susan Hutson took office in May. But it was on March 10, before the lodging controversy was made public and two weeks before Hutson overhauled her top staff by forcing four of them out of their jobs, the sheriff assembled her team and forcefully put them on notice. “I feel so betrayed. Betrayed,” Hutson said to the group at the beginning of the late afternoon meeting. “And all the work that you do. The chaos that it's caused. Talking about each other. Not speaking to each other. Not working together. Crazy text messages.” Sheriff Hutson’s words of warning were captured on an audio recording of the meeting exclusively obtained by WWL-TV. MORE: https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/investigations/mike-perlstein/recording-reveals-chaos-behind-the-scenes-at-orleans-sheriffs-office/289-5773e4f4-d00d-4be7-b6fc-8d14bbd7451e