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http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug21/0,4670,KatrinaNursingHomeDeaths,00.html
Defense Blames Gov't in Katrina Deaths
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. - Like other residents of St. Bernard Parish, the
owners of a Louisiana nursing home where 35 patients died in Hurricane
Katrina were never formally ordered to evacuate, a former parish official
testified in the negligent homicide trial of the facility's owners.
Larry Ingargiola, the parish's emergency preparedness chief when the 2005
storm struck, said elected officials warned residents about the powerful
storm in televised news conferences. Ingargiola said he failed to persuade
Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez to sign a formal mandatory
evacuation order.
Prosecutors called Ingargiola to testify Monday in the trial of Salvador and
Mabel Mangano, husband-and-wife owners of St. Rita's nursing home in St.
Bernard Parish. Testimony was to resume Tuesday.
Both face 35 counts of negligent homicide, one for each of the patients who
died in the wake of the August 2005 storm. Each defendant also faces 24
counts of cruelty, for the suffering of the survivors.
Prosecutors with the state attorney general's office are trying to prove
that the Manganos should have evacuated their patients as the storm
approached.
But defense lawyers used Ingargiola's recollections to burnish their case
that government failures _ not the Manganos _ were to blame for the deaths.
Defense lawyer John Reed suggested that TV news conferences were not enough
to persuade residents to flee, and government should have ordered them
north.
"It is government officials that call for evacuations," Reed said.
"Yes, sir," Ingargiola replied.
The storm flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and wiped out most of St.
Bernard Parish, as well as neighboring areas in Louisiana and along the
Mississippi coast. Katrina killed more than 1,400 people in Louisiana and
well over 200 in Mississippi.
Defense Blames Gov't in Katrina Deaths
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. - Like other residents of St. Bernard Parish, the
owners of a Louisiana nursing home where 35 patients died in Hurricane
Katrina were never formally ordered to evacuate, a former parish official
testified in the negligent homicide trial of the facility's owners.
Larry Ingargiola, the parish's emergency preparedness chief when the 2005
storm struck, said elected officials warned residents about the powerful
storm in televised news conferences. Ingargiola said he failed to persuade
Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez to sign a formal mandatory
evacuation order.
Prosecutors called Ingargiola to testify Monday in the trial of Salvador and
Mabel Mangano, husband-and-wife owners of St. Rita's nursing home in St.
Bernard Parish. Testimony was to resume Tuesday.
Both face 35 counts of negligent homicide, one for each of the patients who
died in the wake of the August 2005 storm. Each defendant also faces 24
counts of cruelty, for the suffering of the survivors.
Prosecutors with the state attorney general's office are trying to prove
that the Manganos should have evacuated their patients as the storm
approached.
But defense lawyers used Ingargiola's recollections to burnish their case
that government failures _ not the Manganos _ were to blame for the deaths.
Defense lawyer John Reed suggested that TV news conferences were not enough
to persuade residents to flee, and government should have ordered them
north.
"It is government officials that call for evacuations," Reed said.
"Yes, sir," Ingargiola replied.
The storm flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and wiped out most of St.
Bernard Parish, as well as neighboring areas in Louisiana and along the
Mississippi coast. Katrina killed more than 1,400 people in Louisiana and
well over 200 in Mississippi.