Man pleads to injuring officer in crash

A 50-year-old Morgan City man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in a crash on U.S. 90 that seriously injured a Morgan City police officer in 2014.
Nunsie Jett, 50, of Morgan City, pleaded guilty Monday to the amended charge of vehicular negligent injuring and to possession of Sebutex in a separate case. On the motion of Assistant District Attorney Erica Rose, Judge Keith Comeaux dismissed the remaining charges in each case, St. Mary Parish clerk of court records said.
Jett had faced charges of first-degree vehicular negligent injuring and reckless operation of a vehicle in the Dec. 5, 2014, crash that injured Sgt. Janada Anslum.
State police arrested Jett after the Dec. 5, 2014, crash, and charged him with DWI, too. But the district attorney didn’t file that charge in the bill of information filed in May 2015.
Anslum was in her unit on U.S. 90, wearing her seat belt and bullet-proof vest, when her vehicle was struck from behind by Jett’s F250, The Daily Review reported shortly after the crash.
She was extricated from her police unit and taken to the hospital.
Anslum was at the city limits attempting to slow traffic in the westbound lanes heading toward a single-vehicle motorcycle accident on the U.S. 90 bridge when her vehicle was struck.
Anslum has since returned to work with the Morgan City Police Department. Jett’s sentencing date is set for March 13.
According to a toxicology drug screen performed by state police, meprobamate, carisoprodol and diphenhydramine were detected in a blood sample from Jett. Forensic scientist Derek L. Morgan did the analysis, and Leah Meade did the blood screening.
Dr. Robert D. Johnson, chief toxicologist at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office in Forth Worth, Texas, was asked by the defense to provide an opinion on the amount of Soma found in Jett’s blood sample.
Use of that drug could’ve been anywhere from 12 hours to 3 1/2 days prior to the blood draw, Johnson said. However, no carisoprodol was actually detected in his blood, “which means that compound did not play a role in the accident,” he said.
And the meprobamate concentration was low, about 10 times lower than the average meprobamate-related DWI, “and would not have been the cause of the accident,” Johnson stated.