Political Illusions of the Cajun Mafia

6/A6
A6 AMERICAN PRESS TuESdAy, MARCh 17, 2015
NEW ORLEANS — Robert
Durst couldn’t explain
away similarities between his
handwriting and a letter he
said “only the killer could have
written” that alerted police to
his friend’s shooting 15 years
ago.
Confronted with new
evidence by the makers of a
documentary about his links to
three killings, the troubled millionaire
blinked, burped oddly,
pulled his ear and briefly put
his head in his hands before
denying he was the killer.
Then he stepped away from
the tense interview and went to
the bathroom, still wearing the
live microphone that recorded
what he said next.
“There it is. You’re caught!”
Durst whispered before the
CAMP
Continued from A1
recreation center, shuttle
services, laundry and 24-hour
security.
The Lake Charles-based
Kingdom Logistics SWLA
would fund the construction
of Rosie’s Place.
Braylon Harris, with
Kingdom Logistics, said if the
zoning exception is approved,
construction on Rosie’s Place
would begin later this year or
early in 2016. Zoning stipulations
would require the property
to be developed within
one year of approval.
District 2 Police Juror
Marshall Simien represents
the area where Rosie’s Place
would be built. He said last
month that having such a
facility would help the parish
sound of running water is
heard. “What the hell did I do?
Killed them all, of course.”
That moment didn’t just
make for a captivating finale
to a six-part documentary on
the eccentric life of an heir to a
New York real estate fortune.
It also may have given police
and prosecutors more evidence
in the long-cold case of a mobster’s
daughter. Susan Berman
was felled by a bullet to the
back of her head as investigators
prepared to find out what
she knew about the disappearance
of Durst’s wife in 1982.
Los Angeles prosecutors
filed a first-degree murder
charge Monday that alleges
Durst lay in wait with a gun
and killed a witness — special
circumstances that could carry
a death sentence if prosecutors
decide later to pursue it.
because the housing market
wouldn’t be overburdened by
more people coming to the
area.
The planning and zoning
board will also consider a
zoning exception to allow for
a men’s temporary worker
facility on 11.7 acres at 1323 J.
Clophus Road, near the Mossville
area.
Police jurors on Feb. 19
agreed to rezone the property
from agricultural and general
commercial to light industrial.
As with Rosie’s Place, the
zoning exception will not go
before the Police Jury.
Wes Crain, parish planning
and development director,
said the facility will be built
in phases and will have 625
rooms at its peak. It will also
have a cafeteria, medical staff,
shuttle service and public
water.
Along with the zoning
LOCAL l STATE
Durst heir faces murder charge after documentary
By The Associated Press
MONROE — Ten judicial
districts are expected to run
out of money to pay public
defenders by June, while 4th
Judicial District has enough
on tap to fund indigent defense
through August 2016.
Monroe attorney Bob
Noel said the public defender
funding issue has caused
crime briefs / arrests
State police to set up
checkpoints Friday
Louisiana State Police
Troop D will conduct a seatbelt
and sobriety checkpoints
from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday
at an undisclosed location in
Calcasieu Parish.
l
Calcasieu Correctional
Center reported the following
arrests:
Amanda Dawn Brown, 26, 1206
17 St. No. 25: aggravated battery.
Bond: $10,000.
Peggy Sue McNiel, 52, 2187 E.
Gauthier Road No. 537: thirdoffense
dWI. Bond: $10,000.
Regis Ray Poullard, 36, 1702 9th
Ave: 2 counts drug possession
with intent to distribute. Bond:
$5,000.
Earl Bellard, 42, 1728 8th St.:
failure to register and notify as
a sex offender. Bond: $100,000.
Samuel Edward Lovestrand, 21,
Altamonte Spring, Fla.: indecent
behavior with juveniles.
Bond: $125,000.
Brandy Nicole Oquain, 28, 2568
Santa Rosa Road: 2 counts child
desertion; prohibited drug acts;
2 counts drug use in the presence
of juveniles. Bond:$5,100.
Davon Anthony Patterson, 19,
413 N. Shattuck St.: possession
of a firearm by a person convicted
of certain felonies; carrying
a weapon in presences of
drugs; first-offense marijuana
possession. Bond: $11,000.
Eric Paul Bushnell, 42, 7864
Nelson Road: 2 counts driving
with a suspended license;
drug possession with intent to
distribute; drug paraphernalia.
Bond: $26,000.
Jonathan J. Bennett, 25, 2016
denise St.: 2 counts drug possession
with intent to distribute.
Bond: $6,000.
Thomas Wayne Courdle, 36, 600
E. Krause St.: domestic abuse
battery; simple battery. Bond:
$15,000.
Benjamin Adam Lambert,
29, 687 Redwood drive: 2
counts unauthorized entry of
an inhabited dwelling. Bond:
$10,000.
Patrick Michael Blevins, 22, 503
an immediate crisis, and he
predicts chaos for the courts
if additional moneys or an
alternative funding source
isn’t found.
This isn’t the first time the
Louisiana Public Defender
Board has faced a crisis. In
2002, public defenders took
pay cuts to keep the system
afloat. In 1986, lack of funding
resulted in attorneys — some
Mill St.: theft between $5,000
and $25,000; bank fraud. Bond:
$20,000.
Dessie Yewman Newman, 42,
2818 Progressive St.: 3 counts
drug possession with intent to
distribute; cruelty to juveniles;
first-offense marijuana possession;
drug paraphernalia. Bond:
$78,000.
William Todd Bryant, 47, 921
Bryce St.: failure to register as a
sex offender. Bond: $25,000.
Andrew Moss, 33, 1233 Mayo St.:
3 counts monetary instrument
abuse; failure to register as a
sex offender. Bond: $145,000.
Neal Lloyd Smith, 26, 325 N.
Crocker St., Sulphur: drug possession.
Bond: $5,000.
Terry Lee Blalock, 39, 206
LeBlanc St. No. 18, Sulphur:
prohibited drug acts; resisting
an officer; operating a vehicle
while license is suspended; hit
and run driving; reckless operation.
Bond: $44,500.
Joel A. Benoit, 27, 311 Tupelo
Lane: possession of marijuana
with intent to distribute;
prohibited drug acts; drug
paraphernalia; disturbing the
peace. Bond: $10,000.
Murphy James Bellard, 35, 1009
Louise St.: violations of protective
orders. Bond: $10,000.
Faye A. Matthews, 27, 2402
Anita dr. No. 1107: 4 counts
felony carnal knowledge of a
juvenile. Bond: $20,000.
Jamall Joseph Miller, 24, 212
Balboa St.: drug possession
with intent to distribute; firstoffense
marijuana possession;
illegal possession of stolen
firearms; illegal carrying of
weapons in presence of drugs.
James Allen Sanders, 51, 322
East St., Vinton: simple criminal
damage to property less than
$500; violations of protective
orders. Bond: $50,000.
Barry M. Jackson, 39, 2101
Margaret St. Apt. C, Westlake:
2 counts domestic abuse
battery with child endangerment;
domestic abuse battery
by strangulation; violations of
protective orders.
Vernon Lain, 55, 2106 See St.: 2
counts failure to register as a
sex offender. Bond: $20,000.
exceptions, the planning
board will also consider two
rezoning requests to allow for
temporary worker facilities.
One request is by Mac and
Dusty Royer to rezone property
on the 4700 Block of La.
27 from agricultural to light
industrial.
The other is a request by
Krause and Managan Lumber
Company LLC to rezone
property on the southwest
corner of La. 27 and Royer
Loop from agricultural to light
industrial.
The rezoning would allow
for a temporary worker facility
and an RV park on the
property.
If approved by the board,
the rezoning would be considered
by the Police Jury. After
that, both rezoning items
would have to have a zoning
exception approved by the
planning board.
with little criminal defense
experience — being appointed
by the courts to handle public
defense.
The 1986 crisis lasted
almost six months with some
appointed lawyers having to
handle defense cases for free.
The current public defense
system was established at that
time with a new governing
board to oversee finances.
By Johnathan Manning
jmanning@americanpress.com
Although it is strapped for
cash, the Calcasieu Public Defenders
Office is not expected
to run out of money this year,
the head of the local office
said Monday.
A recent news report found
that the budgets of several
public defenders offices
around the state are expected
to run dry this year, which
could result in restrictions of
Calcasieu Point boat launch reopening
By John Guidroz
jguidroz@americanpress.com
After being closed for just
over three months, the boat
launch at Calcasieu Point
Landing will reopen to the
public on Wednesday.
The boat launch was
closed in December so crews
could replace and repave a
23,000-square-foot circular
concrete area around the boat
launch.
“It was a very big maintenance
project,” said Dean
Kelly, assistant director of
facility management for the
Calcasieu Parish Police Jury.
“The concrete was starting to
crack up, and there were trip
hazards.”
Kelly said the work also
allowed for access points to
Noel said the 1986 crisis
could happen again.
“We do not have enough
revenue at the local level to
support ourselves when the
money runs out, so we’ll have
to cut back services to only
that which we can meet with
our budget. And, when individual
lawyers can’t take any
more cases, we’ll probably see
lawyers forced to accept cases
services. But District Defender
Harry Fontenot said the Calcasieu
Office is staying afloat,
albeit “barely,” because of
previous cuts and the cooperation
of the 14th Judicial Court
system.
“No district is safe, but we
should be safe for another year
because we cut everything,”
Fontenot said, then reiterated:
“We cut everything that we
could cut when we knew this
was coming years ago.”
The judges of the 14th JDC,
Durst, 71, who was arrested
at a New Orleans hotel on the
eve of Sunday’s final episode,
agreed Monday to face trial for
the murder of Berman, who
had vouched for him in public
after his wife vanished.
Attorney Dick DeGuerin
said outside court that Durst
didn’t kill Berman, and is
“ready to end all the rumor and
speculation and have a trial.”
The makers of “The Jinx:
The Life and Deaths of Robert
Durst” said Durst rejected his
lawyer’s advice to stay quiet
before granting two lengthy
interviews. They also said he
knew he was being recorded
throughout, and that they
shared any evidence they
gathered with authorities long
before broadcasting the film on
HBO.
Legal experts said the bathroom
tape could become key
evidence.
“Any statement that the
defendant makes that they
want to use against him, they
can use against him,” said
Andrea Roth, a law professor
at the University of California,
Berkeley. “Even if it’s sketchy,
and only in context appears to
make him look guilty.”
The bathroom recording
was not part of the evidence
presented to prosecutors before
charges were filed because
detectives were still trying to
determine if the recording was
tampered with in any way, a
law enforcement official with
knowledge of the investigation
told The Associated Press.
The official, who was not
authorized to speak publicly
because the investigation was
ongoing and spoke on condition
of anonymity, said the
handwriting analysis was the
key new evidence in the long
investigation.
The documentary showed
filmmaker Andrew Jarecki
confronting Durst with a copy
of an anonymous letter that
alerted Beverly Hills police to
look for a “cadaver” at Berman’s
address.
Durst offered that whoever
sent it was “taking a big risk.
You’re sending a letter to police
that only the killer could have
written.”
Then, in the final episode,
Jarecki revealed another envelope,
which Durst acknowledged
mailing to Berman, that
has similar writing in block
letters and also misspelled the
address as “Beverley.”
“I wrote this one but I did
not write the cadaver one,”
be reshaped to accommodate
those with disabilities.
The latest round of improvement
work is one of
several projects done on the
facility over the last several
years. Kelly said Calcasieu
Point is equipped with new
restrooms that comply with
the Americans with Disabilities
Act.
He said an open air pavilion
can be used to host fishing
tournaments, along with a
“grass paved system” that
allows tournaments to display
prizes, like boats or trucks,
without causing ruts.
The inside section of the
wharf was transformed into
a small amphitheater that
allows spectators to view the
weigh-ins at fishing tournaments.
for free and possibly handle
cases they are not trained for,”
Noel said.
Local funding is based on
traffic ticket fines or forfeited
bail bonds.
“The problem with traffic
tickets is it all relies on people
writing tickets and people
paying tickets, and that’s
something you can’t predict,”
Noel said.
the District Attorney’s Office
and the parish have worked to
make sure the local office remains
solvent, Fontenot said.
“We’ll be one of the few
parishes standing, I think,”
Fontenot said. “We’ll eventually
go out, but not this year.”
In addition to the PDO’s
budget concerns, the 14th
JDC is also preparing for an
increase in business that will
come with the influx of workers
into Southwest Louisiana.
“With all these extra people
Durst said. But when shown
an enlargement of both copies,
Durst couldn’t distinguish
them.
Former Westchester County
prosecutor Jeanine Pirro
seemed stunned when the
filmmakers showed her Durst’s
previously unknown letter to
Berman, saying “the jig is up.”
She believes it was her
reopening of the cold case into
Kathleen Durst’s 1982 disappearance
that provoked the
killing of Berman, who had
been Durst’s confidante.
Now, she said, his own
words can convict him.
“It was a spontaneous statement,
a classical exception to
the hearsay rule,” Pirro told
Fox’s “Good Day New York.” ‘‘I
don’t hear it as a muttering. I
hear it as a clear, unequivocal
‘I killed them.’ ”
Kelly said the boat launch
work was finished just in time
for the spring season, when
boating activity begins to pick
up.
“We received plenty of
phone calls from people asking
when it’s going to be open
again,” he said. “People are
wanting to get back on the
water.”
District 8 Police Juror
Guy Brame represents the
area where Calcasieu Point
is located. He said the needed
improvements provide a
much better experience for
outdoor enthusiasts.
Calcasieu Point Landing,
located at 3955 Henry Pugh
Road, is open from 5 a.m.
through 11 p.m. daily, and the
boat launch is open 24 hours.
Eleven Louisiana judicial districts face public defender funding crisis
By The Associated Press
In 2014 the district received
$1.5 million in special fees,
which are collected by the
Ouachita Parish and Morehouse
Parish sheriff ’s offices.
Approximately 90 percent
of cases in the criminal justice
system require a public defender,
Noel said.
“Without public defense the
whole courthouse would shut
down,” Noel said.
Official: PdO won’t run out of money this year
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coming in, the system is really
going to be overburdened,”
Fontenot said. “I don’t know
what that’s going to do.”
The local office hit crisismode
in 2012, when it withdrew
from 400 cases that were
assigned to the local bar to be
worked pro bono.
While Fontenot’s prediction
for the immediate future
is survival, his long-term
forecast is dire: “The well will
run dry if something doesn’t
happen.”
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CONTACT
JESSIKA SARVER
337-494-4047
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