MONROE — A former River Oaks teacher has pleaded guilty to making school bomb threats.
David Reyna entered his plea Monday on the opening day of his trial in Monroe.
Reyna was arrested Sept. 28 and accused of making bomb threats against River Oaks, St. Frederick and Ouachita Christian schools on Sept. 24.
He was booked on one count of communicating false information of a planned bombing of school property.
The three schools were temporarily evacuated. River Oaks dismissed classes for the day, while St. Frederick and OCS resumed classes. No explosives were found by police.
Reyna will be sentenced in February and faces up to 20 years in prison. He remains free on $200,000 bond.
3 rob N.O. man working on Christmas display
NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans man was robbed and his home burglarized by three suspects who approached him Sunday while he was hanging Christmas lights, police say.
Three man approached the unidentified victim, ordered him off a ladder and forced him inside the house.
Police say the suspects bound the victim’s wrists, searched the house and took money, a cell phone, several computers, jewelry and other items.
Police said the robbers wore black hooded sweatshirts and black bandannas and displayed handguns.
McNeese to offer online, DVD classes
LAKE CHARLES — McNeese State University will begin offering electronic learning courses in the spring semester.
The courses offer students lessons online or accessed by DVD.
Students also can attend classes at one of the university’s off-campus sites in Allen, Jefferson Davis and Beauregard parishes.
University officials said a $20 fee per credit hour is assessed for off-campus sites and all web courses.
More details are available at www.mcneese.edu/schedule .
Registration will be held through Jan. 9 and classes start on Jan. 16.
Lake Charles cops investigate 3 killings
LAKE CHARLES — Lake Charles police are investigating three weekend homicides.
A stabbing happened Sunday afternoon and a shooting death Sunday night.
Deputy Chief Mark Kraus said details on the deaths would be released Monday.
Kraus said it was the third homicide Friday.
Police have already arrested a man in connection with Friday night’s death.
Dustin Belest Pleasant, 26, was booked with second-degree murder in the death of an unidentified female.
Trail funded
HOUMA — Terrebonne Parish has received about $92,000 from the state for the Southdown Trails System, a biking and walking trail.
The money will help start the first phase of the bicycle route, the Southdown Loop.
Terrebonne officials said they expect the first phase of construction to be completed by March 2013.
B.R. airport rotunda to be finished in 2013
BATON ROUGE — A project to enlarge the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport rotunda is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013.
The rotunda expansion is the first part of a four-phase, $9 million project that will include new enclosed curbside check-in, new flooring and new restrooms.
Ralph Hennessy, the airport’s assistant director of aviation, tells The Advocate the new space will allow for future expansion of the security checkpoint from its current two lanes to three.
With the improvements, Hennessy says the rotunda will be expanded about 70 feet out onto the tarmac, allowing officials to move the security checkpoint farther from the escalator and stairs and providing a space for those awaiting arriving passengers.
Traffic cameras proposed for parish
NEW ROADS — If Pointe Coupee Parish Police Juror Justin Cox has his way, the parish will soon follow in the footsteps of several police departments and start using traffic cameras to catch speeding motorists on parish roads.
Cox introduced a speed enforcement plan last week during a finance committee meeting where he said the program could reduce speed-related crashes.
Cox said he wants the Police Jury to consider hiring Redflex Traffic Systems to install cameras that would take snapshots of speeding violators along various roads in the parish.
The program would be modeled after one in Baker, which contracted Redflex in 2008. The company issues traffic citations through the mail and collects the associated fine.
Lake Charles cops investigate 3 killings
LAKE CHARLES — Lake Charles police are investigating three weekend homicides.
A stabbing happened Sunday afternoon and a shooting death Sunday night.
Deputy Chief Mark Kraus said details on the deaths would be released Monday.
Kraus said it was the third homicide Friday.
Police have already arrested a man in connection with Friday night’s death.
Condition of burned workers improves
BATON ROUGE — The condition of two workers burned in a Gulf of Mexico oil platform fire has improved, hospital officials said Monday.
Baton Rouge General Medical Center officials tell The Advocate their condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.
A third worker, Wilberto Ilagan, 50, remains in good condition. Ilagan is the only one of the three victims whose name has been released.
The Nov. 16 fire on a platform operated by Black Elk Energy south of Grand Isle killed three workers.
Lafayette doctor headed to prison
LAFAYETTE — A former Lafayette cardiologist has agreed to report to prison by Dec. 17 after losing his appeal to overturn a health care fraud conviction.
Dr. Mehmood M. Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2009 following a three-month trial in which a jury convicted him on 51 counts of federal health care fraud.
The Advocate reports Patel has remained free since 2009 while appealing the case. The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in August and last month turned down a request by the former doctor to reconsider.
Patel’s attorney had asked the appellate court to allow him to remain free pending a request to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
The appeals court last week denied the request.
Board member asks court to dismiss case
LAFAYETTE — A St. Landry Parish School Board member is asking a federal judge to toss out his bribery charge for allegedly asking a superintendent candidate for $5,000 in exchange for the board member’s vote of support.
The Advocate reports Quincy Richard Sr. argues in court papers filed Monday that federal prosecutors have overstepped their bounds in trying to pursue a case that, if prosecuted, should be done at the state level.
No hearing has been set on the motion to dismiss.
In November, Quincy Richard Sr. and John Miller, both of Opelousas, pleaded not guilty to federal charges that they each asked a superintendent candidate for $5,000 in exchange for their votes naming him to the post.
Audit: Unpaid tolls
on La. 1 cost millions
BATON ROUGE — State transportation officials have allowed up to 300,000 cars and trucks to use a troubled toll bridge in far south Louisiana without operators paying. That’s according to a report issued on Monday.
In addition, Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said in an 18-page review that state officials failed to charge motorists with electronic accounts that had insufficient funds and did not send delinquency notices to nearly 40,000 violators who used the La. 1 bridge in Leeville.
Toll collections have been a problem since they started being collected two years ago, and state officials said in July that troubles remained despite the opening of a cash lane in June.
Teen fatally shot by Breaux Bridge police
BREAUX BRIDGE — State police continue to investigate a shooting involving a Breaux Bridge police officer.
Troopers say officers were dispatched to a disturbance Sunday night.
As officers arrived to the scene, they say 17-year-old female, Darnesha Harris was driving a car toward their unit.
Police say Harris struck the front of the officers unit, then she placed the vehicle in reverse and struck a parked car on the roadway. After hitting the parked car Harris drove forward, traveled through a ditch, struck a bystander and a parked car in a driveway.
Troopers said one of the responding officers discharged his weapon striking Harris. Harris was taken to a local hospital where she later died as a result of her injuries.
Houma man arrested after gas pump damaged
HOUMA — A Houma man has been arrested after allegedly damaging an uncooperative gas pump.
Terrebonne Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested Sean Charles Oshea, 27, of Houma on charges of criminal damage to property.
Deputies say Oshea told them he pulled up to the gas station at the Sam’s Club store and became irate after the pump would not accept his debit card.
Deputies said Oshea started beating on the pump with the hose nozzle, causing damage estimated at several thousand dollars.
2 teens sought in French Quarter robbery
NEW ORLEANS — Police are seeking two male teenagers they say beat up a man walking on Bourbon Street and stole his iPhone on Sunday afternoon.
WDSU-TV reports the incident happened about 5:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Bourbon Street, a heavily trafficked French Quarter tourist corridor.
Police said the victim was walking and video-chatting with a friend on his iPhone, unaware he was being followed.
One of the juveniles attempted to grab the man’s phone, police said. When he couldn’t, the second teen knocked the victim to the ground, investigators said.
Weather eyed as crews remove explosives
DOYLINE — Authorities are keeping a close eye on the weather during operations to secure 6 million pounds of explosives at a former ammunition plant.
The National Weather Service says thunderstorms are likely Tuesday in the town of Doyline, located next to the site where the propellant used in artillery shells was haphazardly stored.
State police spokeswoman Lt. Julie Lewis says crews will suspend efforts to relocate the M6 propellant into bunkers if lightning is spotted within five miles of the site.
As of Monday, crews had segregated or safely stored 1.2 million pounds.
Woman pleads guilty
in S.S. theft case
SLIDELL — A woman accused of helping stuff the body of her roommate’s dead father into an ice chest and stealing almost $34,000 of his Social Security checks has pleaded guilty.
The Times-Picayune reports Heidi Todd, 45, pleaded guilty to unlawful disposal of human remains, mutilating or disinterring human remains and theft. State Judge Richard Swartz sentenced her to three years in prison last Thursday.
Todd and Debra Fisher, 58, were arrested in March — up to two years after Charles Fisher, 83, died.
Investigators said when Charles Fisher, who lived with Todd and his daughter, died of heart disease, the women shoved his body into a 160-quart ice chest they kept at the apartment near Slidell where they lived.
Fisher is scheduled for trial Dec. 10.
Sheriff’s deputies went to the apartment after a call from the landlord, who said he hadn’t seen Charles Fisher in some time. Air conditioning repair workers had called the landlord after they tried to get inside the apartment but were denied access, deputies said.
All that was left of Charles Fisher when deputies found him was a mummified skeleton. His hands were cut off and stored in a freezer, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Todd was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment on each count, but the sentences will run concurrently and she will serve a total of 3 years in jail.
From The Associated Press.
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