Craft directed all other questions to spokesman Paul Mouton.
“We have questioned many people in connection with this case,” Mouton says, declining to confirm whether Mcgee or anyone associated with him is still being questioned. “That information is part of the ongoing investigation and not public record,” he adds. “We have no one in custody. We have never had anyone in custody.”
Mouton says he does not know what kind of vehicle Mcgee drives, nor would he release the information if he did. “It is part of an ongoing investigation,” he says.
Two years ago the Teche News reported that Mcgee was involved in an automobile accident in Breaux Bridge in which Amin Jalaudin Amlani, 35, of Breaux Bridge was killed. The car Amlani was driving was struck by another vehicle being driven by Mcgee, then 17, also of Breaux Bridge, the paper reported. Click here to see an image of Amlani’s vehicle.
The two-vehicle accident happened on Grand Point Road Hwy. 347, near Doyle Melancon Road.
Mcgee, who could not be reached for comment, was initially charged with OWI and felony hit and run with a fatality, according to St. Martin Parish Assistant District Attorney Chester Cedars. The ADA says two other individuals, Bryan Marks and Victor Simon, were in the vehicle with Mcgee. “None of them could be held criminally responsible because they were not the operator,” Cedars says.
Cedars says he initially tried to charge Mcgee with vehicular homicide but would have had to prove that intoxication caused the accident, and the evidence supported that Amlani had turned into Mcgee’s car. The ADA was able to secure a guilty plea to felony hit and run with a fatality. Mcgee is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 21; he faces up to seven years at hard labor.
Cedars says Mcgee was not prosecuted on the OWI charge, which would have been a misdemeanor. “By his pleading guilty to felony hit and run, there was no reason to prosecute OWI,” he says. “We didn’t give anything up on that. I went after the bigger charge. We intend in August to seek a hard labor sentence on this guy.”
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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