Louisiana news briefs

Vinton school bus driver arrested on sex charge
VINTON (AP) — Authorities say a 38-year-old Vinton school bus driver who admitted having sex with a teenage boy has been arrested.
Kim Myers, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said Jessica Hudson was booked Tuesday with 20 counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
In a separate case, the district attorney’s office say Hudson completed a pretrial diversion program in February to avoid a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
Myers said deputies began investigating Tuesday after receiving an anonymous tip. She says Hudson knew the boy outside of a school setting.
Hudson is being held on $500,000 bond set.

Ex-Sorrento mayor seeks lower bail in porn case
GONZALES (AP) — Defense attorneys for Wilson Longanecker Jr., the former Sorrento mayor arrested last month on dozens of child pornography counts, say his $1.025 million bail is excessive.
State Judge Jessie LeBlanc is expected to consider at a hearing Monday whether to reduce Longanecker’s bail to $100,000 so it can be paid with a bond secured by family property.
Longanecker was arrested Oct. 23 on 40 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of obstruction of justice and was booked into Ascension Parish Prison near Donaldsonville where Longanecker remains.
Defense attorney Timothy Pujol wrote to LeBlanc that Longanecker’s family cannot afford the $1.025 million bail that she had set previously.
Assistant District Attorney Robin O’Bannon says prosecutors will oppose the bond reduction request.

5 officers placed on administrative reassignment
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison has placed five officers on administrative reassignment pending the outcome of an investigation into their actions as detectives in the Special Victims Section.
The Public Integrity Bureau launched an investigation into each officer based on an Office of Inspector General inquiry.
The OIG’s investigation found evidence that suggested the officers weren’t doing the job they were charged to do.
Harrison said he will take additional disciplinary action if and when department policy violations are discovered.
Harrison says officers Akron Davis, Derrick Williams, Damita Williams, Vernon Haynes and Sgt. Merrill Merricks are under investigation.

Crowley police can ban audio, video recording
CROWLEY (AP) — A Louisiana attorney general’s office opinion says Police Chief K.P. Gibson can prohibit audio or video recording at the Crowley police station.
Gibson asked for a ruling after a resident complained about the policy, which bans audio or video recording in the station’s lobby and waiting areas.
The chief says the policy is designed to protect victims, witnesses and others who might be waiting to speak to an officer. He says the department maintains video surveillance throughout the building.
While the opinion favors Gibson, it also says the chief should consider whether safety, security or privacy concerns warrant restrictions on the public’s right to gather information on government activities.

Latest Louisiana tax amnesty period closes today
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Time is running short for delinquent taxpayers to take advantage of Louisiana’s latest tax amnesty period.
The Department of Revenue’s amnesty program began Oct. 15 and wraps up today.
People can settle state tax debts with half the interest they would otherwise owe and no penalties charged. They can pay through a six-month installment plan if that helps make the debt more manageable, but they can’t use tax credits to resolve their back-owed taxes.
An estimated 450,000 taxpayers owe $1.8 billion in Louisiana taxes. Details about the amnesty program are available at www.ldrtaxamnesty.com or by calling 866-782-9241.
The amnesty program needs to bring in $100 million to keep this year’s state budget in balance. Lawmakers used the money they anticipated receiving to help pay for Louisiana’s Medicaid program.

10-year sentence
in New Orleans heroin case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans man has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for his role in a heroin conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite says the sentence was handed down Thursday for 37-year-old Corey D. Wilson.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo handed down the sentence. Wilson pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute heroin.

Monroe doctor dies
in accidental drowning
MONROE (AP) — Monroe Police are investigating an accidental drowning in Bayou DeSiard.
Police said 63-year-old Dr. Madura Rangaraj was found dead under his boat house Thursday evening.
Officers said Rangeraj went out to check the pipes in the boat house because of the cold weather, and his wife called police around 7 p.m. after he did not return.
Officers called the dive team, who found Rangaraj’s body in the water near the boat house.

La. grand jury indicts
driver in death of Texan
LAKE CHARLES (AP) — A Louisiana man has been indicted on a charge of vehicular homicide in the death of a Texas man in a head-on collision on Interstate 10 in September.
The grand jury on Thursday charged 28-year-old Derek Paul Cooper, of Sulphur, who has been held on $759,500 bond since Sept. 28.
Thirty-one-year-old Jeremy Anthony Olivier, of Port Arthur, Texas, was killed in the crash.
State police say Cooper was eastbound I-10 when he collided with Olivier, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Holly Carter says Cooper, who was not injured in the crash, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the 0.08 level that Louisiana law requires to charge an adult with drunken driving.

New commissary open at Fort Polk
FORT POLK (AP) — Military affiliated people and their families now have a new place to shop for groceries and daily essentials at Fort Polk.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday for the base’s $19 million commissary.
Brig. Gen. William Hickman said the commissary was a welcome change for military families and another jewel in the crown of Fort Polk and the community.
The 72,000-square-foot facility serves nearly 32,000 authorized shoppers within a 20-mile radius.
The Defense Commissary Agency, which operates the store and others worldwide, projects that the facility will do 42,400 customer transactions monthly. The facility is expected to bring in $30 million a year in sales — exceeding the old building’s sales by about $2 million.

5 interviewed for Lafayette airport director job
LAFAYETTE (AP) — A search committee will narrow the number of candidates vying to be Lafayette Regional Airport director from five to four next week as the airport board moves toward choosing a director in January.
Committee members on Nov. 20 will eliminate one of the remaining candidates based on interviews Thursday that each lasted less than an hour. The five candidates were interviewed Thursday.
The five candidates still in the hunt are Jason Devillier, director at the Iberia Parish Airport; Ralph Hennessy, assistant director of aviation at the Baton Rouge airport; Robert Kennedy, of East Point, Georgia, vice president of consulting services for Aviation Strategies International; Steven Picou, deputy director of aviation at the Amarillo International Airport; and David Blackshear, vice president of Applied Airport Technology in Maryland.

Grand Isle fire chief accused
of possessing pot
GRAND ISLE (AP) — Grand Isle’s fire chief and a volunteer firefighter were among 20 people arrested after an undercover operation into drug use on the remote barrier island and recreation spot on the Gulf of Mexico, says Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand.
Fire Chief Aubrey “T-Black” Chaisson was arrested Thursday morning and booked with possessing marijuana and with an outstanding attachment for contempt of court.
Normand said volunteer firefighter Patrick Santiny was booked on three possession counts, for marijuana, drug paraphernalia and a controlled dangerous substance.
There was not any evidence that either Chaisson or Santiny took drugs while on duty, the sheriff said.
He said 16 other Grand Isle residents and two residents of Lafourche Parish rounded out the arrests Thursday morning.
A tip about drug use at the island’s fire station prompted the undercover operation, Normand said.
The sheriff said investigators decided to end the undercover operation and make arrests because it was getting hard to keep it secret.
“The complexities of executing an undercover operation on an island — one way on, one way off; very few residents; and everybody knows one another — I think goes without saying,” Normand said. “Every time a new face is seen down there everyone’s antenna goes up and their radar is on.”