(Louisiana AG) Foti scrambles to keep (MeeMaw) Blanco off witness stand

Having missed a deadline to challenge a subpoena requiring Gov. Kathleen Blanco to testify in the St. Rita's nursing home trial, the state attorney general's office asked for an emergency extension and, barring that, requested that Blanco give a closed-door deposition rather than be cross-examined on her response to Hurricane Katrina in open court.

Defense attorneys subpoenaed Blanco on July 10 in connection with the upcoming negligent homicide trial for Sal and Mabel Mangano, who owned the St. Bernard Parish nursing home where 35 residents drowned during Katrina.

Judge Jerome Winsberg is expected to issue a ruling on the request Monday, when jury selection begins in St. Francisville, where the trial was moved after defense attorneys requested a change of venue.

Attorney General Charles Foti's office is both representing Blanco and prosecuting the case because St. Bernard Parish District Attorney Jack Rowley recused himself, saying he knew some of the victims at St. Rita's.

Attorneys for the Manganos have said they want to question Blanco about her actions as Katrina approached in late August 2005 to bolster their defense that the government is responsible for the tragedy at St. Rita's because of levee failures and a bungled evacuation that left thousands of residents in harm's way.

But for defense attorneys, the testimony of the state officials is critical to their strategy of essentially putting the government on trial.

"At every level, the actions and inactions, and the decisions and indecisions, of the governor, along with other state and local officials, are an integral part of the explanation for how it was that St. Rita's came to shelter in place rather than to evacuate on that last weekend of August 2005," Reed wrote.

Having missed a deadline to challenge a subpoena requiring Gov. Kathleen Blanco to testify in the St. Rita’s nursing home trial, the state attorney general’s office asked for an emergency extension and, barring that, requested that Blanco give a closed-door deposition rather than be cross-examined on her response to Hurricane Katrina in open court.

Yea, lets keep everything secret, that will produce more trust in elected officals. Maybe even raising their percentage rating to a high of 4%.

THEY REALLY HAVE GOT TO KIDDING.

http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/08/battle_over_35_deaths_at_st_ri.html#Scene_1

Battle over 35 deaths at St. Rita’s to begin
Posted by Paul Rioux, St. Bernard bureau August 11, 2007 11:14PM
“They’ve lost their home and their business, and now they’re fighting for their freedom. But they’re the toughest, most resilient people I’ve ever met.”
— JIM COBB, defense attorney

Jury selection starts Monday in high-profile trial of a couple accused of abandoning their nursing home to Katrina’s fury

High on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, St. Francisville weathered Hurricane Katrina’s initial onslaught with scattered power outages and some downed trees.

Then came the waves of evacuees, including several hundred people who took shelter in a school in the picturesque town 25 miles north of Baton Rouge and 115 feet above sea level.

“We obviously didn’t have any flooding and there wasn’t much wind damage, but we were bulging at the seams for weeks and weeks,” West Feliciana Parish tourism director Kitty Martin said. “The town probably doubled in size overnight.”

Nearly two years later, St. Francisville is about to be inundated by another Katrina-spawned wave of visitors as a West Feliciana Parish jury will be asked to render a judgment in what was perhaps the catastrophic storm’s deadliest episode: the drowning of 35 residents at St. Rita’s nursing home in St. BernardParish.

The home’s owners, MabelMangano, 64, and her husband,Sal Mangano, 67, face 35 countsof negligent homicide for notevacuating the nursing home asKatrina bore down on southeastern Louisiana in late August2005.

With jury selection set to begin Monday, TV news trucksare staking out positions aroundthe 104-year-old copper-domedcourthouse, and every motel andbed and breakfast in the area isbooked solid for the trial, whichcould last six weeks.

The deaths at St. Rita’s drewnational news media attention,with photographs of overturnedwheelchairs and walkers encased in the muck covering thenursing home floors emergingas some of the storm’s most poignant images.

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