LA - 35 patients die in Chalmette nursing home during Katrina, 29 Aug 2005

[Peter Hamilton]

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/8653416.html

Jury notices go out in St. Rita’s trial

Katrina nursing home deaths case moved to West Feliciana Parish


A little from the article dated July 23rd:

At a hearing today, lawyers in the case will talk about how the jury will be picked. The trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 13.

and

The Manganos each face 35 counts of negligent homicide. Each count carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

and

State District Judge Jerome Winsberg has held hearings aimed at streamlining the upcoming trial, which is expected to be lengthy.

--good--Thanks for the update Deb

 

[Peter Hamilton]

Trial is now all set to begin--New Orleans Times Picayune has a big article on it today--The trial is expected to take 6 weeks--The defendants are 64 and 67 years old

 

[CaliKid]

I thought they dismissed charges against these people. Or is this a different trial from the nursing home nurses and doctor?

 

[kgeaux]

I thought they dismissed charges against these people. Or is this a different trial from the nursing home nurses and doctor?

The dismissed charges were against nurses and doctors at a hospital. They had been charged with euthanizing patients in the days following Katrina. Since the patients were all too critical to have been evacuated, since there was no water, heat of over 100 degrees in the hospital, and since (maybe most importantly) the bodies were not autopsied until they were severely, severely decomposed, it was impossible to determine cause of death. IMO, anybody could have seen this would have been the logical outcome, and IMO charges should never have been brought.

editing to add: the nurses at the nursing home died along side their elderly charges. They were true heroes.

 

[kgeaux]

Trial is now all set to begin--New Orleans Times Picayune has a big article on it today--The trial is expected to take 6 weeks--The defendants are 64 and 67 years old

Hey, Peter, good to "see" you. The local Lafayette paper has an article, too. The owners of the nursing home are trying to supeno Gov. Blanco, and she is fighting it big time.

They want her on the witness stand because they contend the state bungled evacuations and failed to ensure the safety of the levees. It is well known that Blanco did NOT follow the state's plan for emergency evacuations. (Neither did Nagin, the re-elected fool) HOWEVER, the owners of the nursing home did not follow their own evacuation plan either!

It will be somewhat easier to win a case against these two, although it is not a shoe-in by any means. They are a very popular couple, and no one believes that this was intentional-----in fact, due to the fact that they HAD evacuated the nursing home during a previous hurricane and lost several patients due to the trauma of being moved, it is even widely understood why they decided not to evacuate this time.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in reference to the defence's wish to call Blanco as a witness.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

hi Kgeaux--Thanks for your post--Since you are more local than most of us,your posts are invaluable regarding this case, so please keep us updated and thanks

 

[OkieGranny]

From September 2007:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20649744/...a-nursing-home-owners-acquitted/#.VgmPhbT8FWY

The owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died after Hurricane Katrina were acquitted Friday of negligent homicide and cruelty charges for not evacuating the facility as the storm approached.

The jury took about four hours to acquit Sal and Mabel Mangano, the husband-and-wife owners of St. Rita’s Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, just outside of New Orleans.