AP News, December 7th, 2006
The trial of two nursing home owners charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of 35 patients after Hurricane Katrina will probably be held outside of St. Bernard Parish.
A state judge Thursday granted a defense motion to move the trial of Mabel and Salvador Mangano, the husband and wife who own St. Rita's Nursing Home. The judge said proceedings would most likely be held in Lafayette, Baton Rouge or farther north.
Judge Jerome Winsberg left open the possibility the trial could be held in St. Bernard if defense lawyers decide to have a bench trial instead of a trial by jury. A decision to move the trial _ if it is moved _ would be made Friday morning, Winsberg said.
Defense lawyers had asked for a change of venue due to extensive pretrial publicity. The couple face 35 counts of negligent homicide and 64 counts of cruelty to the infirm.
Prosecutors, defense lawyers and the judge agreed that assembling a jury would be difficult in St. Bernard, a suburban New Orleans parish where Katrina's flooding drove out most of the population.
"This was anticipated from day one because of the extraordinary conditions in this parish," said Winsberg, adding that he would like the trial to begin next April.
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, whose office is prosecuting the case, has said the Manganos should have taken steps to evacuate patients from St. Rita's Nursing Home as Hurricane Katrina approached the coast.
Defense lawyers say that St. Rita's had never flooded before the storm hit on Aug. 28, 2005, and that the Manganos' hurricane plan _ keeping frail residents in place with food, water and generators rather than risking their lives by moving them _ was responsible. They say nobody would have died had the levees held.
Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and virtually wiped out neighboring St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. The Louisiana death toll was nearly 1,600.
