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| This mug shot, from Lavergne's July 5 arrest for aggravated kidnapping and murder, reveals a scar on his neck. Lavergne claims he was attacked by an unknown assailant May 19, the same day Mickey Shunick went missing. |
The convicted sex offender, who on July 5 was arrested for aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the case of 21-year-old UL Lafayette student Mickey Shunick, claims he was attacked by the white male without warning in the New Orleans area the same day Shunick went missing. According to Hyer’s account and the initial incident report, Lavergne was stabbed several times in the chest, back, neck and hand with a “knife/cutting instrument.” Lavergne also claimed the suspect stole his wallet, which contained his driver’s license (Lavergne, Lafayette police later confirmed, tried to alter his license to disguise the fact that he is sex offender) and $40. Lavergne told Hyer he drove around until he found Ocshner Hospital.
When the officer asked if he had any recollection of the area of the incident, Lavergne said he did not. No nearby street names, building shapes, landmarks/significant structures, “or any other identifiable features of his surroundings,” Hyer writes in the report. Lavergne told Hyer he was in town visiting a friend and was heading home after being released from the hospital. Hyer also notes that Lavergne told him he’d just spent two hours explaining to detectives with the New Orleans Police Department that he had no recollection of the area in which he was allegedly attacked. NOPD was also called to the hospital because Lavergne could not or would not tell anyone where the attack occurred.
“I attempted to gain further information from [him] in reference to him being attacked,” Hyer says. “However the more questions I asked, the less [Lavergne] began to provide.”
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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