5-4-17
LAFAYETTE RECEIVED MORE THAN FOUR INCHES OF RAIN YESTERDAY, CAUSING THE VERMILLION RIVER TO RISE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE TO TWELVE-AND-A-HALF FEET. MANY AREA ROADS FLOODED, CAUSING LOTS OF STALLED CARS THROUGHOUT THE CITY, BUT ONLY ONE HOME IN THE PARISH FLOODED. THE LAFAYETTE CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYED WATER PUMPS IN AREAS WHERE THE WATER WAS HIGHEST. PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR TOM CARROLL TOLD THE ADVERTISER THEY PLANNED TO USE THE PUMPS THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.
YESTERDAY’S HEAVY RAINS PROMPTED SOME AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO CLOSE TODAY. IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA, JEFF DAVIS, ALLEN AND BEAUREGARD PARISHES HAVE CLOSED SCHOOL. BEAUREGARD PARISH SUPERINTENDENT TIM COOLEY TOLD KPLC TV THAT THE AMOUNT OF RAIN YESTERDAY CREATED UNSAFE ROAD CONDITIONS. THE ONLY SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ACADIANA TO CLOSE SCHOOLS TODAY ARE VERMILLION AND EVANGELINE PARISHES.
THREE FORMER IBERIA PARISH LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS FACE YEARS IN PRISON FOR VIOLATING AN INMATE’S CIVIL RIGHTS BY BEATING HIM. JULIE DARCE HAS MORE.
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Singer-songwriter John Legend visited the Louisiana Capitol to advocate for a rewrite of the state’s criminal sentencing laws. Legend spoke to a House judiciary committee Wednesday and met with Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration and lawmakers to talk about the legislative effort to overhaul the state’s criminal justice system. A study group recommended a sweeping rewrite of the state’s approach to crime and prisoner rehabilitation. The effort is aimed at lessening Louisiana’s highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate and providing more programs to reduce inmates’ chances of returning to prison after release.
LAFAYETTE POLICE HAVE DETERMINED THAT A MAN, WHO WAS SHOT AND KILLED SATURDAY NIGHT IN DOWNTOWN LAFAYETTE, FIRED SHOTS FIRST. INVESTIGATORS FOUND THAT 23-YEAR-OLD GEORGE FORD OF NEW IBERIA GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT AND FIRED SHOTS AT TWO MEN, WOUNDING THEM. ONE OF THE TWO MEN FIRED BACK AND KILLED FORD, WHO WAS FOUND BY POLICE WITH HIS GUN AT THE CRIME SCENE. POLICE SPOKESMAN CORPORAL KARL RATCLIFF SAYS THEIR FINDINGS WILL BE FORWARDED TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WHO WILL DECIDE IF ANY CHARGES ARE TO BE FILED AGAINST THE TWO OTHER MEN.
CALCASIEU PARISH SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES ARRESTED A DERIDDER MAN ON 46 COUNTS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. 46-YEAR-OLD IVY MONCEAUX LEFT HIS CELL PHONE AT A RESIDENCE IN CALCASIEU PARISH AND THE PERSON WHO FOUND IT LOOKED IN IT TO FIND THE OWNER AND DISCOVERED THE PICTURES. A FORENSIC EXAM ON THE PHONE REVEALED IMAGES AND VIDEOS OF GIRLS UNDER THE AGE OF 16, ONE OF WHOM LIVES IN CALCASIEU PARISH. MONCEAUX’S BOND HAS BEEN SET AT 100 THOUSAND DOLLARS.
FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A WEEK, A HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENT LANDMARK IN ST. LANDRY PARISH HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY FIRE. OPELOUSAS FIREFIGHTERS TOOK ABOUT AN HOUR EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING TO PUT OUT A FIRE AT THE CHARCOAL LOUNGE, WHICH DATES BACK TO THE 1940’S. FIRE CHIEF CHARLES MASON SAYS THE SECOND FLOOR IS A TOTAL LOSS AND THE CLUB AND ROSE ROOM SUSTAINED HEAT AND WATER DAMAGE. JUST ONE WEEK BEFORE THAT, MILLER’S ZYDECO HALL OF FAME IN LAWTELL, WHICH WAS BUILT IN 1947 AS RICHARD’S CLUB, WAS DESTROYED BY A FIRE.
A Leesville woman has pleaded guilty to falsifying records and otherwise hiding that more than $1 million had been stolen from a bank. Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said in a news release Wednesday that 46-year-old Amanda Pollock entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey to one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation. Authorities say Pollock stole 10 weeks of vault logs on May 10, 2014, while working as a teller at the Fort Polk branch of a local bank. She also entered false transactions into the bank’s records to cover up $1.1 million that was missing.
