4-13-15
AN ARREST WARRANT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR FORMER C-E-O OF KNIGHT OIL TOOLS, MARK KNIGHT, FOR ALLEGEDLY CRAFTING A SCHEME TO SET UP THE ARREST OF HIS BROTHER, BRIAN KNIGHT, ON BOGUS DRUG CHARGES. JULIE DARCE REPORTS.
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CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW JAIL FOR ALLEN PARISH IS ABOUT TWO MONTHS BEHIND SCHEDULE. THE 8-POINT-3 MILLION DOLLAR JAIL IN OBERLIN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE COMPLETED LAST MONTH. SHERIFF DOUG HEBERT THE THIRD SAYS WEATHER HAS CAUSED DELAYS AND THEY ARE NOW EXPECTING TO OPEN NEXT MONTH. THE FORTY THOUSAND SQUARE FOOT FACILITY IS ABOUT 90 PERCENT COMPLETE AND WILL HOUSE UP TO 199 INMATES.
Loreauville Alderman Mark Landry has been named mayor pro tem in the wake of longtime mayor Al Broussard’s death last weekend in a car crash. KATC-TV reports Landry serves as one of the town’s three aldermen, with Brad Clifton and Sandy Sonnier. He has served in the post since 2004. Broussard died a week ago when a 13-year-old in a pickup truck grabbed the wheel in a curve, causing the truck to collide with the vehicle driven by the mayor’s fiancee.
Piecing together a solution to the state’s financial mess is the primary agenda for lawmakers returning to Baton Rouge. The Louisiana Legislature opens its two-month regular session Monday. Lawmakers are grappling with a $1.6 billion budget shortfall and finding themselves in frayed relations with a term-limited governor who appears to be readying for a presidential campaign. The House and Senate gavel in at noon.
Workers are repairing the brick arches of the Cajundome, with officials saying that water damage over the arena’s 30-year-life has cracked bricks, leaving them in danger of falling. Cajundome Director Greg Davis tells The Advertiser that workers had been removing cracked bricks, but are now making permanent repairs because state money has become available. Davis said Friday that the work is unrelated to a $16 million upgrade planned for the arena using borrowing recently approved by the state Bond Commission. That upgrade will redesign the lower bowl of the arena to get spectators closer to sporting events, add 800 to 1,000 seats, and repair the arena’s roof.
TWO DOGS THAT BELONGED TO A DRY CREEK FAMILY WERE SHOT AND KILLED. CYNTHIA HARBISON TELL KPLC TV THAT HER DAUGHTER WITNESSED THE SHOOTINGS BUT DID NOT SEE WHO SHOT THEM, BECAUSE IT APPARENTLY CAME FROM THE WOODS. SHE SAYS THE FAMILY IS EMOTIONALLY TORN UP AND THEY HOPE THE BEAUREGARD PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE FINDS OUT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE. THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE IS INVESTIGATING, BUT DOES NOT YET HAVE ANY SUSPECTS.
St. Martin Parish sheriff’s deputies have arrested a jailer accused of smuggling cell phones to inmates at the parish jail. The Advocate reports 22-year-old Christopher Lee, of St. Martinville, was booked Friday on one count each of malfeasance in office and introducing contraband into a penal institute. Bond was set at $20,000. The incident marks the fourth arrest of a sheriff’s office employee this year.
A tax credit program lauded for turning Louisiana into “Hollywood South” but lamented for its cost to a cash-strapped state government is at the center of a federal trial opening in New Orleans. The defendants are two film industry executives and a New Orleans attorney accused of taking part in a scheme to bilk the state out of more than $1.1 million in film tax credits. The trial opens today, the same day the Louisiana Legislature’s annual session begins down the highway in Baton Rouge. Among the issues at the session is whether to rein in a film tax credit program that cost the state $220 million last year.
