4-26-21
LIFE JACKETS AND HARD HATS BELIEVED TO BE FROM THE CAPSIZED SEACOR POWER LIFT BOAT WERE FOUND ON SUNDAY. CAROLINE MARCELLO REPORTS.
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Federal prosecutors say 10 Saint Mary Parish residents are accused of collecting about $6,000 each by faking applications for disaster benefits for car damage after floods in August 2016. Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook says all lived outside the disaster area but filed applications saying their cars were totaled by floods within that area. He says their estimates were all from nonexistent car repair shops. A news release Thursday said all live in St. Mary Parish but claimed car damage in Iberia parish or Lafayette parish.
NINE CHEMICAL COMPANIES FROM THE LAKE CHARLES AREA HAVE AGREED TO A FIVE-AND-A-HALF MILLION DOLLAR SETTLEMENT WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THE MONEY IS A REIMBURSEMENT TO THE ENVIROMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY FOR OVERSEEING THE CLEANUP OF THE NORTHERN CALCASIEUR RIVER ESTUARY. THE CONTAMINATION WAS DUE TO IMPROPER DISPOSAL PRACTICES OVER THE PAST CENTURY. A GROUP OF LAKE CHARLES AREA RESIDENTS FIRST MET WITH THE E-P-A IN THE EARLY NINETEEN-EIGHTIES ABOUT WATER CONTAMINATION AFTER BLOOD SAMPLES FROM SOME RESIDENTS SHOWED HIGH LEVELS OF DIOXIN AND OTHER CHEMICALS.
Louisiana health officials Saturday said providers can immediately resume vaccinating patients for COVID-19 using the Johnson & Johnson shot. The Louisiana Department of Health, in a news release, encouraged residents to take advantage of available vaccines, including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, to help put the pandemic in its rearview. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted a precautionary pause on the vaccine’s use late Friday. The two agencies said the vaccine’s potential benefits outweigh its potential risks.
A BROUSSARD WOMAN WAS SHOT IN THE HAND BY A NEIGHBOR SATURDAY NIGHT FOLLOWING AN ALTERCATION. IT HAPPENED IN THE FOUR HUNDRED BLOCK OF MARY STREET AND THE SUSPECT IS PHILLIP LEBLANC THE THIRD. POLICE SEARCHED LEBLANC’S HOME AND FOUND A NINE MILLIMETER HANDGUN, SEVERAL MAGAZINES OF LIVE AMMUNITION AND SUSPECTED MARIJUANA, ACCORDING TO POLICE CHIEF BRANNON DECOU. LEBLANC WAS BOOKED INTO THE LAFAYETTE PARISH CORRECTIONAL CENTER ON SEVERAL CHARGES INCLUDING ATTEMPTED SECOND DEGREE MURDER.
A TEENAGER FROM CARENCRO WAS ARRESTED LAST WEEK FOR ALLEGEDLY SHOOTING AT AND WOUNDING SEVERAL PEOPLE IN CROWLEY. THE SHOOTING HAPPENED AT AN APARTMENT COMPLEX ON JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST. ACADIA PARISH SHERIFF K-P GIBSON SAYS EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD BRAYLIN LEMON WAS INVOLVED IN A DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE WHEN HE PULLED OUT A GUN, SHOT AT MULTIPLE PEOPLE AND FLED THE SCENE. LEMON WAS BOOKED INTO THE ACADIA PARISH JAIL TUESDAY ON THREE COUNTS OF ATTEMPTED SECOND DEGREE MURDER AND HIS BOND WAS SET AT FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
A former Calcasieu parish sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to life in prison for raping and sexually assaulting three girls, all less than 11 years old. The Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office says Judge Michael Canaday ordered 34-year-old David Monceaux to serve two life terms and a 50-year sentence consecutively. Monceaux was convicted April 9 and sentenced Thursday on two counts of first-degree rape and three counts of sexual battery of a juvenile. He had worked at the Calcasieu Parish jail for two years when he was arrested in February 2020.
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN LOST IN LOUISIANA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY IN THE PAST YEAR. CAROLINE MARCELLO HAS MORE.
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