Category Archives: New Orleans

Louisiana court halts criminal indictment against state attorney general

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Republican Liz Murrill was indicted for the alleged intimidation of New Orleans elected officials

Louisiana’s highest court has granted a stay of the proceedings in a criminal indictment targeting the state’s attorney general, in the latest twist of a high-stakes political battle between Republican state leaders and Democrats who govern its most famous city, New Orleans.

Liz Murrill, a Republican who is Louisiana’s first female attorney general, was slapped with a 16-count indictment on Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury charging her with intimidation and malfeasance. The charges effectively accused her of trying to intimidate New Orleans officials who fought a law passed by Republican legislators to overhaul the city’s courts.

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Louisiana pastor sentenced to 80 years for sexually molesting two boys

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Terry Reed, found guilty of rape and molestation of a juvenile, called ‘utter failure of a man’ by victim’s mother

A suburban New Orleans religious pastor has been sentenced to 80 years’ imprisonment after being convicted of sexually molesting two boys – the third time in which he was found guilty of abusing minors.

While Terry Reed received his punishment at a state court hearing on Thursday, the mother of one of his survivors read a victim-impact statement on behalf of her son which called him “an utter failure and a sorry excuse for a man”.

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New Orleans child molester questioned on unsolved killings takes the fifth 700 times

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Stanley Burkhardt, convicted abuser and ex-investigator of sex crimes against children, gives deposition in civil case

Convicted child molester Stanley Burkhardt – a former investigator of sex crimes against children who has been in and out of prison for decades – invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 700 times while being questioned under oath recently, including when asked whether he committed a series of unsolved murders of youths in his orbit.

Burkhardt’s decision to remain silent came when faced with questions about the killings during a deposition in a civil lawsuit by an alleged sexual abuse victim of his – a case aimed at him and the New Orleans police department (NOPD) which used to employ him.

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Ancient Roman gravestone found in New Orleans back yard returned to Italy

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Nearly 2,000-year-old artifact handed over by FBI matches piece missing from museum near Rome for decades

A nearly 2,000-year-old Roman grave marker discovered in a New Orleans backyard has now been returned to Italy.

The marble epitaph – dating back roughly 1,900 years – was officially handed over to Italian officials in Rome on Wednesday during a ceremony led by the FBI. The event also marked the repatriation of another antiquity recovered in the US, the agency said.

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Louisiana Republicans move to eliminate court office won by exonerated man

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After Calvin Duncan served 28 years for a murder he didn’t commit, he won an election to serve as criminal court clerk. But now the office might be shut down

A man imprisoned for nearly 30 years before being exonerated won a landmark election in New Orleans promising to fix a judicial system that failed him. Now, Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, and the Republican-controlled state legislature are racing to eliminate his job before he can be sworn in.

Calvin Duncan won 68% of the vote last November to become the Orleans parish clerk of criminal court after pledging to reform the justice system based on his own experience fighting to access court records while in maximum security prison.

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Man allegedly assaulted by Shia LaBeouf in New Orleans wants to see hate crime charges

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Jeffrey Damnit says actor punched him and second man on Tuesday, calling both ‘faggot’ repeatedly

One of the men whom Shia LaBeouf allegedly battered and insulted with a homophobic slur on Mardi Gras morning in New Orleans on Tuesday, leading to his arrest, would like to see the actor face hate crime charges.

Jeffrey Damnit, who dresses in drag and was in makeup at the time of the encounter with LaBeouf, said on Thursday that the behavior attributed to the Transformers film franchise star was “a complete slap in the face to any alternative-culture person”.

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Shia LaBeouf allegedly called queer man homophobic slurs before New Orleans arrest

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Actor allegedly also made remarks to man who dresses in drag, and was seen dancing on Bourbon Street after arrest

The actor Shia LaBeouf allegedly aimed homophobic slurs at two men – one who identifies as queer and the other who dresses in drag – as the Transformers star was arrested for purportedly battering them at a bar early on Tuesday morning in New Orleans, the victims said.

Jeffrey Damnit – who was born with the last name Klein and was listed as one of the victims by New Orleans police – said in an interview on Wednesday that he was wearing mascara, eye shadow and lipstick when LaBeouf tried to beat him up “while screaming, ‘You’re a fucking faggot’”. He also shared a cellphone video showing LaBeouf in the back of a vehicle being examined by first responders, glancing over at Damnit and saying: “Faggot.”

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New Orleans archbishop testifies under oath for first time in church bankruptcy case

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Gregory Aymond gave confidential testimony as church closes in on $230m settlement with clergy abuse survivors

As New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese closes in on a proposed settlement with clergy abuse survivors worth at least $230m, its outgoing archbishop, Gregory Aymond, testified under oath for the first time in the church’s bankruptcy case during a confidential court session on Friday.

Aymond’s sworn testimony was given under a protective order, and those who attended the session were barred from discussing it. But Billy Gibbens, a high-profile criminal defense and civil lawyer, confirmed in an interview with WWL Louisiana that he was there representing the archbishop as his personal attorney.

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Nine people dead and scores injured over weekend of mass US shootings

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Six separate mass shootings bring tally to 324 this year, underscoring continuing US crisis of gun violence

Sunday’s mass murder at a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, which left at least four worshippers dead and eight wounded, was just one of six mass shootings that erupted across the US over a weekend of gun horror.

The Gun Violence Archive, an online non-profit database which records mass shootings in America, added six fresh incidents over Saturday and Sunday. The concentrated bloodletting, spread out across four states, took the lives of nine people, including the suspect in Sunday’s shooting at Grand Blanc’s Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church, as well as injuring at least 33.

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Louisiana judge orders return of devices to ex-priest caught having sex on church altar

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Former Roman Catholic priest and two dominatrices were evidently recording sexual videos in the church in 2020

A judge in Louisiana has ordered the return of electronics belonging to an ex-Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to obscenity for being caught having sex with two dominatrices atop a church altar while still belonging to the clergy in 2020.

However, the judge also told authorities to erase all data from the devices and storage media as a precaution against videos taken of the tryst from becoming public.

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Hurricane Katrina victim identified 20 years later: ‘finally where she belongs’

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Guardian US partner WWL Louisiana called in Ray Theriot, who used utility bills, driver’s licenses and property records

A woman who died at home during Hurricane Katrina in a community outside New Orleans, but who remained unidentified for nearly two decades, has finally been named before the storm’s 20th anniversary on Friday.

The woman, who was identified with the help of New Orleans’s CBS affiliate, WWL Louisiana, has been named as Dorothy Virginia Driggers Taquino, 81.

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New Orleans archbishop accused of personally hiding child abuse in lawsuit

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Lawsuit has most direct allegations of wrongdoing leveled against Aymond, who denies them, in court filing to date

A lawsuit newly filed against the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans and its top two officials alleges the city’s archbishop, Gregory Aymond, personally covered up child sexual abuse by priests and deacons – and asks a judge to reject a guarantee on his future retirement benefits as punishment.

The archdiocese responded by saying the allegations brought by the plaintiff, Argent Institutional Trust Co, are baseless.

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New Orleans mayor indicted for corruption over alleged bodyguard romance

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Grand jury charges LaToya Cantrell with using city property and resources for purported affair

The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on corruption charges involving a purported romance with her former bodyguard.

Cantrell, 53, thus became the first New Orleans mayor in the city’s 307-year history to be charged by the US government with crimes while still in office.

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Catholic religious order must pay $2.4m to New Orleans clergy abuse survivor

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Federal jury awards historic damages to man who says he was sexually abused at a school run by Holy Cross order

In a historic verdict, a federal jury in New Orleans has ordered a Catholic religious order to pay nearly $2.4m in damages to a man who reported being sexually abused by one of its members in the late 1960s.

John Lousteau, 68, asserted that he was sexually abused while attending an overnight summer camp for boys at the Holy Cross school in New Orleans. He maintained that his abuser was the camp’s director, Stanley Repucci, who belonged to the Holy Cross order that ran the school.

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‘I was let out’: New Orleans man who escaped jail pleads case on social media

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Man identifying himself as Antoine Massey, one of 10 who escaped in May and who is still at large, protests innocence

A man still at large after escaping from a New Orleans jail last month appears to have taken to social media to plead his case to the public.

In a video that quickly went viral, the man identifying himself as Antoine Massey – one of 10 prisoners who fled from the Orleans Justice center (OJC) on 16 May – said he was wrongfully accused and held up papers he said corroborate his innocence.

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Third arrest made in drugging death of Telemundo reporter near New Orleans

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Police announce allegations against Christian Anderson, 33, after body of Adan Manzano, 27, found on 5 February

Authorities investigating the apparent drugging death and robbery of a Telemundo reporter who was covering February’s Super Bowl have arrested a third suspect in the case.

On Friday, the Kenner police department in Louisiana announced the arrest of 33-year-old Christian Anderson on allegations that he had a role in the death of Adan Manzano, 27, whose body was found on 5 February in his hotel room in the city just west of New Orleans.

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Two of 10 prisoners who escaped from New Orleans jail remain on the run

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Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves still at large, while at least 11 people arrested on suspicion of aiding prisoners

Two of the 10 prisoners who escaped from New Orleans’s jail on 16 May remained on the run as of Tuesday, after three more of the group were rearrested on Monday, authorities said.

One of the men was arrested by local police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about 80 miles north-west of New Orleans. Two others were arrested in Walker county, Texas, Louisiana state police said on the Twitter/X.

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New Orleans archbishop appears in court during contentious clergy sexual abuse bankruptcy case

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A potential agreement with survivors is in the works, but some parties are unhappy with settlement amount

The Catholic archbishop of New Orleans made a rare in-person appearance in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, days after announcing a potential agreement to settle claims with hundreds of clergy abuse survivors that has been met with pushback from some of the plaintiffs.

“I’m here because I’m concerned for the survivors,” Gregory Aymond said in an interview with WWL Louisiana away from the cameras after what is believed to have been his first appearance in person for an open court hearing in the five years since his archdiocese – one of the US’s oldest – joined roughly 40 Catholic institutions to file for bankruptcy protection amid the worldwide church’s long ongoing clergy molestation scandal.

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New Orleans archbishop appears in court during contentious clergy sexual abuse bankruptcy case

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A potential agreement with survivors is in the works, but some parties are unhappy with settlement amount

The Catholic archbishop of New Orleans made a rare in-person appearance in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, days after announcing a potential agreement to settle claims with hundreds of clergy abuse survivors that has been met with pushback from some of the plaintiffs.

“I’m here because I’m concerned for the survivors,” Gregory Aymond said in an interview with WWL Louisiana away from the cameras after what is believed to have been his first appearance in person for an open court hearing in the five years since his archdiocese – one of the US’s oldest – joined roughly 40 Catholic institutions to file for bankruptcy protection amid the worldwide church’s long ongoing clergy molestation scandal.

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Five New Orleans jailbreak fugitives still at large as police arrest alleged helpers

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Several people held in connection with jailbreak as manhunt enters second week and criticisms mount over jail management

Several people have been arrested on accusations of helping some of the 10 men who broke out of New Orleans’ jail on 16 May – and half of the escapers remained on the run as a manhunt for them entered its second week, according to authorities.

Police said on Friday that they had booked Casey Smith, 30, a day earlier on allegations that she provided transportation to at least two of the escapers in the hours after the jailbreak. She had allegedly admitted to doing that alongside another woman whom police took into custody on Wednesday, identified as 32-year-old Cortnie Harris, Smith’s cousin and the girlfriend of one of the escaped men, Leo Tate, 31.

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