7-20-15
The Lafayette Consolidated Government may hire a New Orleans law firm to handle negotiations for a settlement payment from BP for economic losses resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Several public entities in the state already have reached settlement agreements, but Lafayette’s claim for a share of the BP pie has yet to be resolved. The city-parish government filed a claim in 2013. Lafayette officials have declined to talk about how much money they are seeking or any aspect of the negotiations — including how it will be spent.
The new Cameron Parish jail and sheriff’s office headquarters are almost ready.
Parish Administrator Ryan Bourriaque (BOR ee ahk) tells The American Press that the state fire marshal will inspect the building next week. He has to sign off before the department can move in. The new jail will replace one built in 1939.
THE PASSENGER IN A ONE VEHICLE ACCIDENT NEAR CROWLEY WAS KILLED SATURDAY MORNING. ACADIA PARISH SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES BELIEVE 23-YEAR-OLD LANCE WAGNER WAS TRAVELING AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED ON STANDARD MILL ROAD, WHEN HE LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE AS HE ATTEMPTED TO TURN ONTO EAST PARK DRIVE. THE VEHICLE WENT THROUGH A DITCH AND LANDED ON A TRUCK PARKED IN A DRIVEWAY. A PASSENGER, 24-YEAR-OLD BROCK JOSEPH SIMON OF CROWLEY, WAS EJECTED FROM THE VEHICLE AND WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE ACADIA GENERAL HOSPITAL.
LAFAYETTE POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING AN ARMED ROBBERY INVOLVING A PIZZA DELIVERY MAN. JULIE DARCE HAS MORE.
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A Lake Charles woman has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for a scheme to file false settlement claims involving the BP oil spill. U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley says 43-year-old Yvette Kocik pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi. According to the plea, Kocik approached current and former employees of Steamboat Bill’s seafood restaurant asking them to use their employee documents so she could file claims on their behalf. Kocik’s mother owns the restaurant and she performs bookkeeping services.
THE ST. LANDRY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IS PLANNING A BANQUET FOR NEXT WEEK, WHERE THREE INDIVIDUALS WILL BE HONORED. MUSICIAN KENNY JANISE WILL RECEIVE THE HADLEY J. CASTILLE MUSIC AWARD, BRENT FONTENOT WILL BE PRESENTED WITH THE EQUINE INDUSTRY AWARD, AND CHARLES CANNATELLA WILL TAKE HOME THE AGRICULTURE AWARD. THE BANQUET TAKES PLACE IN OPELOUSAS AT EQUINE SALES OF LOUISIANA ON TUESDAY, JULY 28TH. MONEY RAISED FROM THE EVENT WILL GO TOWARD THE CHAMBER’S MUSIC AND EQUINE STUDIES SCHOLARSHIPS.
U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley says a Lake Charles man has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in a $5.8 million Ponzi scheme. She says 54-year-old John Steven Blount of Professional Consultants LLC admitted that regulators barred him in 2003 from working as an investment adviser, but he did so from June 2007 to December 2014. Finley says Blount put money from at least 73 investors into his own bank accounts and used about $1.7 million of it to pay earlier investors.
He could get up to 20 years in prison, an $8.4 million fine and an order to repay his victims.
Lafayette Parish retail sales were down by 9 percent in May 2015 compared with May 2014. It’s a dip local economic development officials blame on weak oil prices slowing activity in the oil patch. The Advocate reports the figures, the most recent available because reporting is behind actual sales by several weeks, were released Friday by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. Year-to-date sales as of May are down 2 percent from 2014, which was a record year for retail in Lafayette Parish.
