AG still denies release of report due to open records debate

Report on shooting death of Bernard Monroe, Sr. remains sealed

MICHELLE BATES, Editor

A lawsuit filed in New Orleans, regarding the release of a deceased’s medical records, is having a direct affect on the release of the Louisiana State Police report involving the shooting death of Bernard Monroe, Sr.

The New Orleans case revolves around Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses who allegedly gave elderly patients a lethal cocktail of drugs to euthanize them after the charity hospital flooded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

When the grand jury didn’t return indictments, CNN and the Times Picayune of New Orleans requested the records of five patients who allegedly died under the doctor’s hands be released.

However, two defendants, who were unnamed in the article, filed suit requesting those records be blocked from release “claiming the records are covered by grand jury secrecy rules, that they should have been considered confidential informants and that releasing the documents would violate their privacy.”

According to a CNN article published Thursday, September 9, Judge Donald Johnson of the 19th Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge ruled that “records of the Memorial Medical Center deaths” in New Orleans should be released because the deaths “don’t involve ‘criminal litigation which is either pending or which can be reasonably anticipated.’”

This means the records should be released under state open records laws, and the judge’s decision is now under appeal.

The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office filed suit saying the courts needed to better define open records laws. In July, the case was sent from the Supreme Court back to District Court, which made the ruling to have the records released.

Assistant District Attorney Kurt Wall said that case is now on appeal, so no records have been released. Because of this case, the Louisiana State Police report on the officer-involved shooting death of Monroe is also not being released.

In earlier editions of The Guardian-Journal, Wall said that because the New Orleans case was still under litigation, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell ordered that no reports be released to the public until a ruling on the definition of open records laws is better defined.

Monroe was shot and killed on Friday, February 20, 2009, by former Homer Police Officer Tim Cox. The shooting occurred when Cox and former Homer Officer Joseph Henry were chasing Monroe’s son, Shawn. The chase led to the elder Monroe’s home, where the events of that day took place. Police said he was shot because he allegedly engaged the two officers with a loaded handgun. Witnesses and family members say Monroe did not have a gun in his possession at the time of the shooting. Instead, he was holding a sports drink bottle.

The case caused an uproar of outrage and anger in the community. At the time of the shooting, the Louisiana State Police were brought in to investigate the case, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Justice Department. The FBI was brought in to look into whether any of Monroe’s civil rights were violated. According to Agent Sheila Thorne, media spokesperson in the New Orleans Office, the investigation is still open and ongoing.

The Americans for Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was also brought into the picture, and they found that the Homer Police Department practiced racial profiling because a majority of the arrests they made were minorities.

In December 2009, the case was turned over to the Claiborne Parish District Attorney’s Office, and District Attorney Jonathan Stewart immediately turned it over to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. When the grand jury returned no true bills against either former officer, the Monroe family hired famed civil rights attorney Morris Dees and filed a civil suit.

Earlier this year, the Town of Homer settled with the Monroe family to prevent any further litigation in the case and release the two former officers and the town from any liability afterwards.

Claiborne under burn ban

A burn ban has been issued for the entire parish of Claiborne.

Homer Fire Chief Dennis Butcher said extremely dry and windy conditions right now are ideal for fires to start.

“Residents may want to consider cleaning up vegetation back around the home or structure to create a buffer zone between you and the fire,” Butcher said.

Haynesville Fire Chief Mark Furlow just recently issued a burn ban for the Town of Haynesville and Fire District #3. Butcher also said a burn ban was issued for Fire Districts #4, 5 and 6 as well.

The burn ban is effective immediately and will be in place until further notice. For more information, please call the Claiborne Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness at 318-927-9118.

Pelicans Survive Tornado...and Win

Pels score 20-12 over Tornado

Members of the 1970 and 1971 Haynesville High School football team were recognized at this past Friday’s 103rd Claiborne Parish match-up between the Tornado and Homer High School Pelicans. These men were members of the state championship team and brought home the trophy for both years. For more information on the results of the annual Claiborne Parish Super Bowl, see this week’s edition of The Guardian-Journal. Senator David Vitter, along with Senator Mike Walsworth presented former Haynesville High School Head Coach Alton “Red” Franklin with a letter of recognition from the State of Louisiana commending him on his recent induction to the 2010 NFHS National High School Hall of Fame Class. Franklin won 367 games and 11 state football championships while coaching at Haynesville High School.

Fred’s moves forward with plans to open

MICHELLE BATES, Editor

Fred’s will now move on with the opening of its store on Hwy. 79 next door to Delta Interiors.

The Homer Town Council held a special meeting on Friday, September 17 in order to wrap up some issues regarding the ingress and egress issue on the old Wal-Mart parking lot. The council voted unanimously to authorize Mayor Alecia Smith to execute an easement on the north side of the parking lot in favor of McDonalds.

Last Monday, September 13, the council met in executive session to discuss the matter. The issue is this. According to Town Attorney Jim Colvin, Fred’s is purchasing a strip of property from McDonald’s in order to allow customers access to the store’s pharmacy drive-thru. However, McDonalds wouldn’t close the deal with Fred’s until the Town of Homer granted easement in the parking lot of the old Wal-Mart building.

“My concern was twofold,” Colvin said. “If we granted them an easement, we would be prohibited from development on the north side because it would interfere with traffic flow along that easement line.”

The town had a couple of options. They could have granted the easement, allowing McDonalds to use that strip of the parking lot to allow its delivery trucks to enter the restaurant’s parking lot or park on the gravel area behind it – which is what they chose to do. The second option they considered was splitting the parking lot in half between Delta Interiors and Fred’s which would have given Fred’s the responsibility of granting the easement or not.

However, District 3 Councilman Toney Johnson raised concerns about being able to develop the middle of the parking lot. With the town allowing the easement to McDonalds, it still leaves the option of development in the middle of the parking lot.

Fred’s, which just recently bought out Claiborne Drug, is now in the process of building a firewall between where their store will be and Delta Interiors. Now that the deal is closed on that strip of property on the north side, Fred’s can now move forward with construction of the store inside the building.

CPSB approves 2010-11 budget

MICHELLE BATES, Editor

The Claiborne Parish School Board approved the 2010-11 budget, but the deficit is not as bad as some parishes are facing, according to CPSB Business Manager Fred Evans.

During the workshop before the meeting, he explained to the school board what the budget will entail for the coming fiscal year, saying that like all other school systems in Louisiana, the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funding is decreasing. Last year, the MFP decreased, but it was substituted with federal stimulus money. However, that extra money is now gone and now they have to fund a $464,000 loss.

Another reason there is a deficit is the cost of teachers’ retirement benefits has increased and the manpower (teachers and staff) and student population have decreased.

“When the student population goes down, so does the MFP,” he said.

The MFP is based on the number of students each parish has attending public schools. In other words, the MFP pays each school system a certain amount per student enrolled in public schools.

“The most challenging of these budgets to balance was the General Fund,” Evans stated in a budget memo with the proposed budget. “This was due mainly to the continued reduction in the MFP distribution to the parishes. Once again, the Legislature failed to fund the 2.75 percent increase in the per pupil distribution. This coupled with the reduction in 2009-2010 that was eventually funded through the stimulus packages and is not available in 2010-2011, resulted in a budget shortfall of $828,500.”

The school board is compensating by decreasing the number of teachers to save on salaries and benefits, decreasing the number of bus routes to save on fuel and bus repairs and decreasing the number of paraprofessionals and janitorial staff. Last year, an estimated $681,000 went towards the purchase of new buses, however, this fiscal year, the school board does not have that expense. So, it helps some, Evans said.

“Combined total of reductions in the MFP and mandated increases in retirement cost came to $1.3 million,” Evans stated in the budget memo. “This is the amount we had to reduce the budget in order to achieve a balanced budget for 2010-11.”

The total budget reduction for the above mentioned compensation totaled $557,475.

In the proposed budget, Evans projected $14.497 million for the MFP fund, but it’s lost $200,000, he said. Over the last two years, MFP funding has dropped by $800,000.

Sales tax revenue has also decreased due to the pipeline companies leaving the parish. In the 2008-09 school year, sales tax revenue was at $4.7 million while the 2009-10 school year, sales tax revenue dropped to $2.4 million.

“All we can do is hope it will keep coming back up,” Evans told school board members. “We’ll have to wait and see how that comes out.”

Another plus Evans stated in the memo is the accounting system was consolidated in February. This will help streamline monies throughout the school system. Most notably consolidated were the bank accounts. According to Evans, there were several actual bank accounts. This does not mean the accounts set up in the accounting system were consolidated. All those accounts remain the same for accounting records. However, the actual monies have been moved to one bank account.

“We now have a Master Fund-Capital One, Master Fund-First Guaranty and a Sales Tax Collection Fund,” the memo stated. “Streamlining these accounts have allowed us to maximize our interest earnings and maintain a healthy cash flow to meet our $2 million average monthly obligations.”

However, the budget for 2010-11 is balanced and it is showing only the $275,000 deficit shown above. The current fund balance is approximately $3.6 million, and “we expect to end the year at $3.3 million,” the memo stated.

In other news, the school board adopted this year’s pupil progression plan, and according to Steve Craig, the state made some changes which include the high school diploma as well as the fourth grade transition program. The state is now offering three diplomas which include the Louisiana Core 4 (TOPS classes), the Basic Core and the Career Diploma.

“If you get a Career Diploma, then they (students) can’t go to a four year college,” Craig said.

However, the student can if they elect to go into one of the other two diploma fields.

Also in other news, Carrie Hathorne has taken the position of interim principal at Homer High School with John Sampson to serve as Dean of Students. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janice Williams said she received four applicants, and recommendations were overwhelming and mixed. However, in the spring, the school board will advertise for the position again.

Hathorne will be paid at a principal’s rate of pay; however, District 10 School Board Member Terry Willis is asking that Central Office continue to monitor issues at Homer High School.

Also, a format and procedure for the evaluation of the schools superintendent is being looked into. School Board President William Maddox expressed his favor saying an evaluation of the superintendent is a good idea.

The issue will be sent to the executive committee for further research.

The next meeting of the Claiborne Parish School Board will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, October 7, at Central Office in Homer. For more information, please call the school board office at 318-927-3502.

Senator Walsworth visits Haynesville

MICHELLE BATES, Editor

Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, came to Haynesville to visit with citizens and let them know what’s going on in the Louisiana Senate.

Last Thursday, during the Haynesville Town Council meeting, Mayor Sherman Brown praised Walsworth for his hard work in getting funding for a project that the town has looked forward to for a while. He was able to secure the funding for a sign the mayor wants to put up for the community.

“Mike has been a friend to Haynesville,” Brown said of Walsworth. “A lot of what we’ve been blessed to receive is because of him.”

Walsworth graciously accepted the praise, but he also talked about what’s going on with the state.

“Everybody knows where Haynesville is,” he said, “and they think you have all the money because of the Haynesville Shale. I keep telling them I just want naming rights. It’s (the Haynesville Shale) just south of us!”

And on that note, he began talking about the severance tax proposal on November’s ballot, saying the citizens of Louisiana need to bring that money back home.

With that, he went into the state’s budget, saying there have been some major cuts; however, small rural communities are still getting the rural dollars through state grants.

“We’re like ya’ll,” he said. “We’re running into tight corners, but we’re still getting the rural dollars.”

However, next year, the state could see some cuts because taxes won’t be going up.

“We will have to live within our means,” he said.

A member of the state’s budget committee, he said $3.3 billion will go to the MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) fund, which goes to fund teachers’ salaries and the monies school systems use each year on a per pupil basis. Walsworth said of that $3.3 billion, only $4 million will go to higher education.

The state has a total of 14 universities that don’t have a lot of leadership in Baton Rouge. Louisiana cannot afford all 14 universities anymore, he said.

Healthcare is another area that will see cuts as well, he said. The new healthcare law just passed will add approximately 4,000 new recipients for Medicaid in the State of Louisiana.

“We just can’t afford that program,” he said. “Katrina added $3-$5 billion to the state budget, but the rainy day fund has been dipped into the last couple of years.”

He also discussed the two proposed amendments on the October 2 ballot. Proposed Amendment #1 just moves the session dates, which means the legislative sessions would start earlier, if it’s passed. Amendment #2 deals with the Governor’s State Office of Emergency Preparedness (GOSEP), which will take the military and put under the umbrella of Homeland Security. According to Walsworth, the Civil Service said it was set up wrong for the military and they are now considered civil servants.

Walsworth stayed after the meeting and visited with citizens to hear their concerns and see what his office could do to help.

In other Haynesville News, Red Franklin was appointed to the Haynesville Housing Authority Board.

Also, the date of October’s regular meeting has been changed to Monday, October 18, due to scheduling conflicts with a clerk’s conference. The original date was set for October 21.

In other news, Ken Folden and Associates, auditors for the town, recommended the town get an opinion from Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell before moving forward with the property near the fire station for improvements. Last month, the fire board approached the council to see what could be done to acquire the property between the fire station and the police station in order to add another bay and make room for more equipment currently being stored in a storage building.

In CAC (Citizens Advisory Committee) news, the date for the city-wide cleanup has been set for Saturday, October 9. Volunteers will meet at the corner park at 8 a.m. to begin cleanup. Council members were asked to approach constituents in their districts to drum up volunteers to help as well as see which areas need the most work. The mayor also told council members that the town will not be getting a dumpster this year; volunteers will be using the existing one.

Also, the city-wide rummage sale has been set for Saturday, November 13. The Santa Train will also stop in Haynesville Saturday, December 11.

Martha Trinko, spokesperson for CAC, said discussions are still ongoing about recycling, however, they haven’t gotten very far yet.

The next CAC meeting is set for Monday, October 4.

At the beginning of the meeting, a moment of silence was held to pay respect to those who passed over the last month. They include: Maxine Cole Burdine, Julia Mae Jackson, Jimmy Jewell Hollan and Barry Mayfield.

Claiborne Parish tourism initiative is underway

JIMMY DEAN, Feature Writer

The Claiborne Chamber of Commerce has put together an assortment of materials to highlight where to go and what to do and see in Claiborne Parish. “Whether you’re a visitor or a local resident, Claiborne Parish has a driving tour CD set that you will find interesting,” says John Watson, Executive Director of the Chamber.

“The CD is one part of a major initiative aimed at helping others see and appreciate what is wonderful about Claiborne Parish,” Watson notes.

Asked what else is a part of the initiative, Watson explains that a colorful tourism brochure has been prepared. In addition,  there is a new website www.claiborneparishtourism.org.

Also, a cemetery brochure includes a map of the parish with the locations of 156 cemeteries in the parish or within a few miles of the parish line.

Finally, television ads have appeared describing Claiborne Parish as a desirable tourist destination.

Describing the tourism brochure, Watson says it highlights points of interest in Homer, Haynesville, Athens, Lisbon, Summerfield, and other areas of Claiborne Parish. It points out that 10 buildings in the parish are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The brochure includes pictures of the Claiborne Parish Courthouse, Herbert S. Ford Museum, Lisbon’s Killgore House, the mural on the west wall of Haynesville’s Killgore Pharmacy,  Homer’s Old Town Cemetery, the Hill Farm, Summerfield’s Alberry Wasson House, and Lake Claiborne.

The cover of the “Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, Cemetery Guide” notes that it is intended to be “A guide to finding the resting places of your ancestors.” A brief description gives directions for each of the 156 cemeteries There is also a map in the brochure marking the approximate location of each.

The new tourism website, www.claiborneparishtourism.org, describes Lake Claiborne State Park and lists local lodging such as Panther Creek Bed and Breakfast at Summerfield and Lake Claiborne Vacation Cottage on Harmon Loop.

The website describes “eateries” such as the Rebel Stop and Moon’s toward Summerfield, Port-au-Prince on Lake Claiborne, Sunrise Bakery and Restaurant and Homer Seafood and Pizza as well as Yesterday’s Grill in Haynesville.

Highlights related to Homer, Haynesville, Lisbon, Athens, Summerfield, and the parish’s historic cemeteries are all mentioned on the website.

Some parish events are plugged including the Butterfly Festival, the Claiborne Jubilee, the 4th of July Fireworks and Boat Parade, Lake Claiborne Antique Auto and Bike Show, and the Christmas Festival.

The set consists of two CDs with 41 tracks of information highlighting areas of interest around the parish. For only $3 visitors or local residents can learn things about Claiborne Parish that’s not in the history books, stories passed down from grandparents to grandchildren that has become the stuff of local legend and lore.

Of course, the internet website is free as is the tourism brochure. With the cemetery guide available for $1 and the driving CD sets for $3, the whole tourism package is available for $4, a token cost to cover expenses of production.

Many local citizens donated many hours to the brochures, the cemetery guide, the driving CDs, and the website.

Brochures and CD sets are available at the following locations:

* The Grapevine

* The Raven Bookstore

* Port-au-Prince Restaurant

* Killgore Pharmacy

* The Rebel Stop

* Claiborne Parish Library

* Delta Interiors

* The Chamber Office at Ford Museum

Brochures only are available at the following:

* Courtyard Florist

* Lake Claiborne State Park

* Haynesville City Hall

* The Guardian-Journal

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