with stolen car
HOUMA — State police say a 70-year-old Montegut woman was killed in a head-on crash with a stolen car.
Troopers say 32-year-old Gregory Poindexter of Houma was traveling north on La. 659 late Tuesday night when he tried to pass a car in front of him in a no passing zone.
Investigators say Poindexter’s car hit a vehicle by Linda Bascle then hit another car driven by 18-year-old Terri McKever of Houma.
Bascle was pronounced dead at the scene. Poindexter and McKever were treated for minor injuries.
Police say the car Poindexter was driving had been stolen from a Houma lounge.
Poindexter was booked on charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular negligent injuring, passing in a no passing zone, no seat belt, no driver’s license and theft of a motor vehicle.
Chinese drywall supplier cleared
NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury has ruled in favor of a New Orleans drywall supplier that distributed the faulty Knauf-brand imported Chinese drywall in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Rick Duplantier, the lead trial lawyer for the firm, said that the trial which ended this week found that the local firm did not know that the materials purchased from Knauf were defective.
The company, Interior/Exterior Building Supply, had purchased the drywall in the months following Katrina in 2005.
Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a major manufacturer of problem drywall from China, last year agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to repair 4,500 mostly Gulf Coast area homes ruined with its product. That deal is still awaiting final court approval.
Man pleads guilty to polluting
BATON ROUGE — A 58-year-old Plaisance man has pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges involving criminal violations of his company’s water discharge permits in St. Landry Parish.
Joseph L. Jones was the president of Plaisance Development Corporation which operated six wastewater treatment plants in St. Landry Parish as well as six wastewater treatment plants in Evangeline Parish.
Prosecutors say Jones was charged with knowingly violating the Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit by exceeding discharge limitations and not providing monitoring results for the facilities operated in St. Landry Parish.
Jones was sentenced this week to 18 months in jail to run concurrently with a previous sentence he received on multiple violations in Evangeline Parish.
Fired principals cite contracts
GRETNA — Lawyers for 12 of the 17 Jefferson Parish public school principals fired in June have filed a lawsuit against the School Board, charging breach of contract.
The lawsuit, led by former Myrtle Thibodeaux Elementary School principal Dodie Plaisance, alleges the grounds on which they were fired by Superintendent James Meza were not written into their contracts.
Meza terminated 17 principals in June after claiming their schools had not met academic growth targets. The plaintiffs charge meeting the targets was not in their contracts, and that they were terminated before time allotted to meet the targets had expired.
Acadian Ambulance expands in Texas
LAFAYETTE — Acadian Ambulance Service has acquired a north Texas company, expanding its operations in the state.
The Lafayette-based ambulance company said its acquisition of StarPlus EMS in McKinney, Texas, took effect on Saturday, adding 50 full-time employees, eight ambulances and three wheelchair vans.
Acadian says it started operating in Texas in 2006 and now provides services in 33 Texas counties. The company also operates in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Second dead bear found by hunter
NEW ROADS — Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officials say a second Louisiana black bear has been killed, less than a week after one was found dead in Avoyelles Parish.
Officials say a female weighing about 225 pounds was found in the woods between the Atchafalaya River and La. 1 in Pointe Coupee Parish.
The Louisiana black bear has been on the federal endangered species list since 1992.
Officials say the bear suffered an apparent high-powered rifle gunshot wound and estimates that it was killed between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1.
A cash reward up to $7,000 is being offered to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction in this case.
New judge assigned to BP case
NEW ORLEANS — A new judge was assigned Wednesday to the case against two BP supervisors charged in the deaths of 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in 2010, after the previous judge disclosed his wife owns stock in one of the contractors.
U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle didn’t immediately recuse himself, but allowed prosecutors and defense attorneys to submit a confidential request for another judge to take the case.
Lemelle said last month that his wife owns stock in Halliburton.
Rapist indicted
in stun-gun rape
BATON ROUGE — A former Chalmette resident serving a 35-year prison term in Mississippi for raping a college student there in 2009 has been indicted in the July 5, 2009, rape of a college student in Baton Rouge.
Officials say 41-year-old James Harold Crockett Jr. used a stun gun and handcuffs during both sexual assaults.
An East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury charged Crockett Wednesday with aggravated rape.
Even though Crockett is serving time in another state, District Attorney Hillar Moore said the victim in the Baton Rouge rape case deserves justice.
Crockett pleaded guilty in June 2010 in the July 6, 2009, rape in Hattiesburg of a 21-year-old college student and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
From The Associated Press.
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