Louisiana news briefs

Kenner police investigate
hit-run fatal accident
KENNER (AP) — Kenner police say a male pedestrian died after being struck by a vehicle on Interstate 10 eastbound.
The accident happened around 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Police found a male body on the eastbound shoulder of the interstate. Police say the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim hasn’t been identified.
Police say the accident remains under investigation.

Man accused of fatal Bourbon Street punch, manslaughter surrenders
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans police say a 41-year-old man has surrendered to face charges involving a fatal punch during an argument on Bourbon Street.
Officer Frank Robertson III says Robert Bennett turned himself in Sunday with his attorney, and was booked with manslaughter in the death of 58-year-old Paul Eckels.
Eckels died at home on Sept. 17, three days after an argument on Bourbon Street. Police say Bennett punched Eckels on Sept. 14, and Eckels fell to the street, losing consciousness.
Robertson says Eckels was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a broken jaw and died at his home. After an autopsy, the coroner found that his death was homicide.
Louisiana State Police had initially booked Bennett with aggravated battery.

School workers fired
after Katrina lose again
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its October dismissal of a lawsuit over the firing of thousands of New Orleans public school employees after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
The lawsuit could have resulted in damages being paid to more than 7,000 fired school employees, with estimated possible costs to the state and the New Orleans school board of over $1 billion. But the high court dismissed the suit in a 5-2 decision.
The court denied a re-hearing on Monday. There was no written opinion issued. The court record said Chief Justice Bernette Johnson and Justice Jefferson Hughes, the dissenters in the October decision, would have granted a rehearing.
In its Oct. 31 ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the fired employees’ due process rights were violated. Justice Jeffrey Victory noted the widespread destruction that followed levee failures during the 2005 storm and said due process rights were not violated in a situation where jobs were unavailable.

Former police chief sentenced
COLFAX (AP) — The former police chief of Colfax has been sentenced following his arrest on charges of malfeasance in office, obstruction of justice and theft of a firearm.
Charles Stickell, 44, was in office when he was arrested in October 2013. Grant Parish District Attorney Jay Lemoine recently announced the convictions.
Stickell was sentenced to five years at hard labor for both the malfeasance and obstruction charges, but those sentences were suspended. The theft of a firearm conviction brought a seven-year sentence, with five years suspended. The former chief will serve two years of home incarceration. Stickell was ordered to pay a fine of $1,500.
Stickell was accused of taking evidence from the Colfax Police Department and selling or pawning the items off.

Ethics Board looking
at sheriff’s home purchase
ABBEVILLE (AP) — Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon is waiting for an opinion from the Louisiana Board of Ethics on whether his purchase of a home at a sheriff’s sale violated state ethics rules and laws.
An audit of the sheriff’s office revealed that someone had filed a complaint with the Ethics Board. The complaint was over Couvillon’s possible violation of the prohibitions against transactions between officials and the agencies they run.
Couvillon said Monday he bid on the home at a sheriff’s auction in February after consulting an attorney about the legality of him participating in the auction process to buy the home.
Couvillon said that if the opinion goes against him, he’ll lodge an appeal.

Lafayette committee may recommend new taxes
LAFAYETTE (AP) — New taxes will likely be among the recommendations from a Lafayette citizens’ committee that has been studying city-parish finances this year.
The Future Needs/Funding Sources Committee met Monday to begin discussing its final report after months of hearing from city-parish department heads, staff and council members.
No consensus emerged on the details of a proposal, but the talk of how to deal with city-parish financial woes focused less on cuts and more on the need for boosting revenue for roads, bridges, recreation and other areas of the budget where funding has been tight for years.
Committee member Sarah Walker cautioned that legally restricting too much tax revenue for specific projects could tie the hands of government and leave little wiggle room for managing the budget.

Teen placing coins
on tracks crushed by train
LIVONIA (AP) — Authorities say a Livonia teenager who was placing coins onto train tracks as a train rolled by died when a ladder hanging off one of the train cars caught the boy, throwing him under the train.
Pointe Coupee Parish sheriff’s deputies said 17-year-old Brandt Torres already had been recovering from a nearly fatal hunting accident two years ago.
Investigators say around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, a day short of the second anniversary of the hunting accident, Torres and three other teens were just south of a Union Pacific rail yard in Livonia when he laid on the ground inches from the passing train cars as the wheels came by and crushed coins. Soon, Torres was thrown under the train.
Deputies say Torres was pronounced dead at the scene.

Golden Nugget opens casino
LAKE CHARLES (AP) — The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino Lake Charles has opened.
The $700 million, 1.3 million-square-foot property on 290 acres marks the fifth Golden Nugget. It rounds out the state’s complement of 15 riverboat casino and is the third casino in Lake Charles.
The 25-story hotel and casino features 740 luxury hotel rooms and suites; an 18-hole championship golf course; an 18,000-square-foot ballroom; 30,000 square feet of meeting space; and a number of Landry’s signature restaurants.
The casino, which opened officially on Monday, features 70 table games, a poker room and 1,600 slot machines.