Louisiana news briefs

Former principal arrested 

in missing meds probe 

VINTON  (AP) — Authorities say the former principal of Vinton Elementary School has been arrested after an investigation revealed she allegedly stole medication from a student.

Vinton Police Chief Ricky Fox said 43-year-old Angela Dolores Braud, of Sulphur, was arrested Thursday.

Fox says Braud was booked with two counts of obtaining a drug by fraud and two counts of theft over $500.

Fox said a school nurse informed a parent that medicine was missing, and the parent filed a complaint with Vinton police on Aug. 23. He says the investigation found that 129 pills used to treat attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder could not be accounted for, dating to 2012.

 

Man robs Houma bank 

HOUMA (AP) — Police are searching for a man who robbed a Chase Bank branch in Houma.

Police Chief Todd Duplantis said the man, who didn’t show a weapon, entered the bank at 2:30 Thursday afternoon, demanded cash from a teller and fled in a black, full-size single cab truck with tinted windows. No one was hurt.

Duplantis says the robber was last seen wearing black clothes.

 

Father shot while 

protecting his children 

LAFAYETTE (AP) — Lafayette police say a 55-year-old man is in guarded condition after he was shot protecting his children during an attempted robbery.

Cpl. Paul Mouton said the victim told police he and his children were confronted by two men under the carport of their home. The men demanded money.

Mouton says the victim shoved his children back into the house and turned toward the suspects, when one of them shot him in the stomach with a handgun.

Mouton says the two men were last seen running from the scene. 

The children were not harmed in the incident. No arrests have been made.

 

Golden Meadow school  battles flee infestation

GOLDEN MEADOW  (AP) — Golden Meadow Middle School has been battling a flea infestation since Sept. 30.

Principal Tim Long said students at the school began showing bites associated with fleas a little more than a month ago. Since that time, Long said exterminators have treated the building at least six times, but the bites aren’t disappearing.

Long said he plans to shutter the building this weekend and cancel all school-related activities. The school grounds will then be completely treated before students return to school Monday.

 

Ex-Livingston councilman sentenced in drug case 

LIVINGSTON  (AP) — A former Livingston Parish Council chairman has been sentenced to five years in state custody after he pleaded no contest to prescription drug trafficking-related charges.

Judge Bob Morrison ordered 32-year-old Robert Ringo on Thursday to five years in the Steve Hoyle Intensive Substance Abuse Program at the Bossier Parish Correctional Center Medium Security Facility.

Ringo also received credit for time served and will have his sentence shortened with good behavior.

Ringo was elected to the council’s District 2 in November 1999.

Ringo served as the council’s chairman in 2003, the same year he ran for parish president.

Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested Ringo in April 2012 after searching his home near Livingston and finding hundreds of pills, most of which were Oxycodone

 

Travel trailer ban 

vetoed in Lafayette Parish 

LAFAYETTE (AP) — Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel vetoed regulations that the council approved last month to ban the use of travel trailers as permanent homes in rural Lafayette Parish, saying the measure was too broad.

The council could vote Tuesday to override that veto, but Durel’s action seems likely to stand, because six votes are needed to trump his veto and the travel trailer ordinance passed Oct. 16 by only a 5-4 vote of the council.

In a written veto message, Durel left open the possibility of tweaking the travel trailer regulations.

The regulations would have banned a travel trailer from being used as a residence for more than 180 days in any calendar year in unincorporated areas of the parish.

 

Cameron Prairie refuge visitor center closed 

BELL CITY — The Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge’s visitor center in Bell City is closed through Tuesday for plumbing repairs.

Diane Borden-Billiot, visitor services manager for the Southwest Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex, says the building’s septic system went out.

She says employees can use facilities at the refuge’s shop yard down the street, but that is not open to the public.

Borden-Billiot says this is a slow season when 10 to 15 people a day may enter the visitors’ center.

She says it will reopen as soon as possible. The 9,621-acre refuge itself remains open.

It’s about 25 miles southeast of Lake Charles, at a spot where two major flyways meet. The refuge is important for migratory birds and attracts about 30,000 people a year.

 

Search in drug case 

leads to alligator in freezer 

COLFAX  (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies executing a search warrant at a Grant Parish home found crystal methamphetamine — and a frozen alligator.

Deputies found an alligator that had been illegally killed stored in a freezer at the home where two Colfax men were arrested.

Both men were booked on drug and weapon charges.

One faced an additional charge for possession of the alligator.

 

Man convicted of killing Baton Rouge woman 

BATON ROUGE (AP) — A 24-year-old Baton Rouge man has been convicted of fatally shooting a woman and wounding her boyfriend last year.

An East Baton Rouge Parish jury found Elijah Smith guilty of second-degree murder Thursday in the March 1, 2012, slaying of 23-year-old Kayla Selders and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of her boyfriend.

Smith faces a mandatory term of life in prison on the murder charge. 

From The Associated Press.

State District Judge Trudy White is scheduled to sentence him Feb. 6.

East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney April Leon said Selders was killed during a dispute involving a car stereo and tinted windows.

Authorities say Selders, mother to two, was pregnant at the time of her death.