Probe clears former official

OPELOUSAS — The state attorney general has cleared former St. Landry Parish President Don Menard of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with a legislative auditor’s investigation of the more than $16,000 in charges made on Menard’s parish-issued credit card.

According to a letter faxed Tuesday to the St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said that he sees no need in pursuing the allegations made against Menard.

Caldwell said he consider the matter closed

Menard served as St. Landry Parish president for a pair of four-year terms that began in 2004.

Woman arrested for terrorizing students, teacher

BATON ROUGE — East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies have arrested a Baton Rouge woman accused of making threatening remarks, including referencing the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., to fifth-graders and a teacher after her child was bullied.

While she was checking her child into Magnolia Woods Elementary School Tuesday, sheriff’s spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks says Donna Wilson learned that her child was a victim of bullying on Monday.

Hicks says school officials told Wilson that they handled the incident and had counseled students about teasing the child.

She says Wilson later walked into her child’s classroom, confronted the teacher about the bullying and asked the students if they remembered the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

Wilson was booked on one count of terrorizing.

Robber drops cash after being tackled

SHREVEPORT — Shreveport police are looking for the person who robbed a video store then dropped the money after he was tackled by an employee.

The robbery happened about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday at Game Exchange in southeast Shreveport.

Witnesses told police a man, wearing a gray huddie walked inside the business and pointed a handgun. Police say the bandit grabbed the money and attempted to flee the store.

Police say one employee tackled the robber, forcing him to drop the case. The gunman left the store running.

Pack of dogs attack zoo goats

MONROE — Two Boer goats at the Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo in Monroe were attacked by a pack of stray dogs over the weekend and suffered injuries so severe they had to be euthanized.

Zoo Director Joe Clawson said the dogs dug under a fence Sunday morning to enter the field where the goats were grazing. No other animals were injured. He said the fence has been secured.

Both goats, as well as a third that wasn’t injured, were on loan to the zoo from an individual. Clawson said the third goat was returned to its owner.

Teen pleads

to sexual assault

BATON ROUGE — A former Tara High School student has pleaded guilty in the February rape of a 14-year-old classmate in the school auditorium and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Adams, 18, and the victim were both special needs students at Tara at the time of the incident.

Adams, who pleaded not guilty April 12 to a charge of forcible rape returned by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the lesser charge of sexual battery and an additional charge of simple kidnapping.

Jazz trombonist dies at 93

NEW ORLEANS — Pittsburgh-born jazz trombonist Tom Ebbert, who spent more than five decades of his career playing swing, ballroom and polka music at burlesque houses and jazz joints in New Orleans’ French Quarter, has died. He was 93.

Ebbert played with the traditional New Orleans jazz ensemble, the Dukes of Dixieland, and was a regular at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe and Preservation Hall before moving to Petersburg, Ind., days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Desperado’s liquor license suspended

LAFAYETTE — The state liquor license for Desperado’s Cabaret — the Carencro strip club raided by federal agents in December — has been suspended indefinitely until a federal charge against the owner is settled.

During a hearing Wednesday before the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control board, Commissioner Troy Hebert rejected a request from Desperado’s attorney Scott Iles to allow Desperado’s liquor license to be transferred to the owner’s wife so the club could remain open.

Iles said club owner James Panos needs to focus on his defense against a federal charge.

Panos was arrested and charged with maintaining a drug-involved premises during a Dec. 5 raid.

Terrebonne voters face tax vote

HOUMA — Terrebonne Parish voters will decide May 4 whether to approve a property tax to pay for water service or risk higher water costs under a new contract.

The Parish Council voted unanimously Wednesday to put a 2.11-mill property tax on the ballot.

The tax is a requirement for Terrebonne to join the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District, which supplies the parish with 80 percent of its drinking water.

Considering Terrebonne Parish relies heavily on this water service, Hugh Caffery, chairman of the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District, said it only makes sense for the parish to be a part of the district and for residents to match the tax the other parishes pay.

From The Associated Press.