Top 10 Tri-City area stories of 2015

Pleasure at the pump was accompanied by pain in the paycheck.
The Capital Management probe continued to spin a tale about a multimillion-dollar theft and racketeering scheme that played out over the course of decades.
A murder conviction became a manslaughter conviction.
Bears were on our minds, and sometimes in our trash cans.
And St. Mary Parish got a new president, a new legislator and a new superintendent.
Those were among the top 10 news stories of 2015 as selected by The Daily Review’s news staff.

Capital Management
Several suspects in an alleged multimillion-dollar theft scheme, possibly dating back to the 1980s, were accused of stealing from their former employer, Capital Management Consultants, a Morgan City-based investment holdings company.
On June 29, District Attorney Bo Duhe filed a bill of information collectively charging Karen Duhon and Armond Duhon, who are married; Donnasue Peveto; A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City; and Nelson-Tucker LLC with one count of racketeering, 354 counts of theft of $1,500 or more and 100 counts of money laundering.
The Duhons own A-B-C Siding Co., while Scott Tucker, Capital Management’s former controller CPA, owned Nelson-Tucker LLC. Tucker died in January 2014.
Company officials alleged that Tucker was the mastermind behind a scheme to steal money from Capital Management. Karen Duhon, a former bookkeeper, allegedly assisted Tucker in the theft.
In addition to theft and money laundering charges, Armond Duhon was charged with intimidating witnesses in the case.
On Dec. 9, Peveto, a former assistant bookkeeper, pleaded guilty to 123 counts of theft over $1,500 and one count of racketeering and agreed to testify at the other defendants’ trials.
Peveto, who could serve up to 25 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced April 12. Capital Management officials said Tucker and Karen Duhon allegedly paid Peveto to stay quiet after she discovered they were stealing from the company.

Plunging energy prices
Several suspects in an alleged multimillion-dollar theft scheme, possibly dating back to the 1980s, were accused of stealing from their former employer, Capital Management Consultants, a Morgan City-based investment holdings company.
On June 29, District Attorney Bo Duhe filed a bill of information collectively charging Karen Duhon and Armond Duhon, who are married; Donnasue Peveto; A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City; and Nelson-Tucker LLC with one count of racketeering, 354 counts of theft of $1,500 or more and 100 counts of money laundering.
The Duhons own A-B-C Siding Co., while Scott Tucker, Capital Management’s former controller CPA, owned Nelson-Tucker LLC. Tucker died in January 2014.
Company officials alleged that Tucker was the mastermind behind a scheme to steal money from Capital Management. Karen Duhon, a former bookkeeper, allegedly assisted Tucker in the theft.
In addition to theft and money laundering charges, Armond Duhon was charged with intimidating witnesses in the case.
On Dec. 9, Peveto, a former assistant bookkeeper, pleaded guilty to 123 counts of theft over $1,500 and one count of racketeering and agreed to testify at the other defendants’ trials.
Peveto, who could serve up to 25 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced April 12. Capital Management officials said Tucker and Karen Duhon allegedly paid Peveto to stay quiet after she discovered they were stealing from the company.

Port gets emergency operations center
In one year, the Port of Morgan City’s $11 million Emergency Operations Center went from the planning stages to nearly finishing construction on a one-of-a-kind facility for south Louisiana.
The two-story, 35,000-square-foot building is expected to house U.S. Coast Guard operations on a daily basis and will serve as an emergency command center during events, such as hurricanes. Officials broke ground on construction of the center Dec. 2, 2014.
The Category 5 hurricane resistant center is located on La. 182 in Morgan City, adjacent to the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
Officials haven’t set a projected date for when the center may open.
As part of an agreement with the city of Morgan City to use city property on which to build a portion of the center, port officials agreed to fund the paving of up to 120 extra parking spaces on the auditorium grounds.

Bears, bears, bears
The Facebook postings of bears sighted locally stirred up fear in some and awe in other Patterson and Berwick residents.
Local officials forewarned spectators about the dangers of bears and safety concerns. In addition, new trash cans were issued by Pelican Waste & Debris to prevent further unintentional bear feeding incidents.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and St. Mary Parish Black Bear Office of Conflict are working to pass an ordinance giving teeth to the current Louisiana law making it illegal to feed black bears.
There were no reports of spectators being harmed by black bears.
But one roaming black bear, unable to find her way home, was tranquilized and transported to Bayou Teche Wildlife. Refuge.

Living over the limit
The housing authorities of Berwick, Morgan City and Patterson housed residents with incomes exceeding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s eligibility criteria by thousands of dollars, according to a U.S. Inspector General audit.
One family living at the Berwick Housing Authority had a combined income of $115,908. The HUD income limit for the family to reside there is $35,550.
Eleven other families’ incomes in Berwick surpassed the income limit by $35,891, $22,634, $17,696 and $10,657, according to the audit.
The Patterson Housing Authority had 11 families exceeding the income limits. Some families had incomes exceeding the limit by $35,787, $18,260, and $13,766, the audit stated.
Lastly, 17 families residing at the Morgan City Housing Authority made more income than allowed. Those families had incomes above the limit by $34,858, $33,490, $23,984, $22,812, $20,699, $20,166, and $19,878, said the audit.
The audit was conducted July 21.

New elected leaders for St. Mary
The new year will bring some new faces into important legislative and executive posts in a position to affect the lives of St. Mary Parish people.
In state House District 51, incumbent Joe Harrison of Napoleonville had been a staunch Republican conservative. Although Harrison butted heads with Gov. Bobby Jindal, he was a board member and one-time national Legislator of the Year for the American Legislative Exchange Council. But fellow Republican Beryl Amedee, a Terrebonne Parish Council member, brought up questions about Harrison’s reporting of expenses and pulled out a 52-48 win.
The race for St. Mary Parish president carried considerably less drama. Parish Council member David Hanagriff easily won the race to succeed the term-limited Paul Naquin, beating former council member Gary Duhon in a two-candidate primary in October. One of Hanagriff’s biggest challenges will be to cope with the decline in tax revenue connected to the 16-month plunge in oil prices.
But Hanagriff’s budget difficulties look small, pale and clammy compared to those of Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards. Of course, Edwards went to considerable trouble to win his new job, proving that there’s some life in the Louisiana Democratic Party after all. Incumbent U.S. Sen. David Vitter, well-known and well-financed, watched “inevitable” turn into “improbable” when his fellow Republicans bashed him in the primary campaign over past sexual indiscretions. Edwards was the top vote-getter in the primary and scored a respectably sized win over Vitter in the general. When it came to endorsements of Vitter from the defeated GOP primary candidates, the silence was deafening.

New education standards
New standards in education were in effect and created this year for Louisiana educators and students as a means to improve the quality of education.
St. Mary Parish School System completed the first of two baseline years taking the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers assessments.
These baseline scores will be used to gauge and set new scores for levels of mastery, in addition to letter grades for overall school district performance in the state.
The school district maintained its letter grade of B. In addition, it moved up the ranks in Louisiana to 22 out of 74 districts.
Thirty to 40 percent of Louisiana students scored at mastery level and above on PARCC assessments. PARCC is also referred to as Common Core.
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a new policy requiring high school seniors in 2018 to apply for financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or Louisiana Office for Student Financial Assistance.
The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed by President Barack Obama in December. This is a rewrite of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
It shifts more decision-making power back into the hands of the states.
Some Louisiana educators hope the new law eases the burden of over-testing and makes teacher evaluations less dependent on test scores.

New superintendent
Political discord from up U.S. 90 created ripples that eventually put Leonard Armato Jr. into the superintendent's post for St. Mary Parish public schools.
After a long series of squabbles over reform measures, personnel and practically everything else, the Lafayette Parish School Board fired Superintendent Pat Cooper in November 2014. (Cooper subsequently lost a wrongful termination lawsuit.)
St. Mary's superintendent, Donald Aguillard, had served most of his career as a teacher and administrator in Lafayette. Aguillard successfully applied to replace Cooper in Lafayette, leaving the St. Mary post open. In June 2015, the St. Mary Board named Armato, the special education director who had attended the local schools and worked in the system for 29 years, to be the new super-intendent.
By all accounts, Armato's first year is going smoothly despite new demands under Common Core and new testing requirements. The district recently learned that it maintained its B letter grade under the state accountability system and moved up to 22nd among more than 70 Louisiana school districts.

Murder conviction reduced
Charles Chandler II, 23, of Bayou Vista, was originally convicted May 7 of second-degree murder in the April 29, 2013, shooting death of Wade Blackburn Jr. in Bayou Vista. On June 25, Judge Anthony Thibodeaux reduced Chandler’s conviction to manslaughter after Chandler’s attorney, Richard Spears, filed a motion for post-judgment verdict of acquittal.
Witnesses testified at Chandler’s trial about a “tussle” that took place at a Columbus Avenue home after Chandler arrived with a handgun looking for Blackburn. There was a struggle for the gun between Chandler and Blackburn, at which time the gun fired several shots, one hitting Blackburn in the abdomen, killing him.
Spears stated that the evidence didn’t clearly show who actually pulled the trigger. Assistant District Attorney Anthony Saleme appealed Thibodeaux’s ruling. Louisiana’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the case Jan. 8, 2016.

Crime in Bayou Vista
In August, a carjacking and shooting occurred in Bayou Vista within four days, both of which have not been solved.
On Aug. 15, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office received a report of an armed robbery on Mercury Road in Bayou Vista. Two suspects allegedly approached a woman who was inside her car, and one of the suspects pointed a handgun at her. The two suspects drove away in the vehicle, but left the victim, who wasn’t injured.
The next day, a deputy observed a car matching the description of the stolen vehicle traveling on Main Street in Franklin and initiated a traffic stop. Three suspects, including the driver, exited the car and fled on foot avoiding capture. The suspects weren’t identified.
On Aug. 19, the sheriff’s office responded to a shooting on Saturn Road in Bayou Vista. Deputies located a 47-year-old woman, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body.
Detectives learned that the victim heard a noise and exited into the back yard of the home. The suspect, who was near a fence at the back of the property, saw the victim, confronted her and produced a handgun, firing several times before fleeing.
The suspect was described as a heavy set, olive-complected white or Hispanic male with short blond hair, but hasn’t been identified. Both cases remain under investigation, Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Traci Landry said.