Posted on 08/28/2003 7:02:09 AM PDT by Stew Padasso
August 28. 2003 1:58AM
Eunice officer indicted in teenager's death
The Associated Press
A Eunice police officer has been indicted on a malfeasance in office charge after investigators said he stopped a drunk driver then released the man, who later allegedly hit and killed a teenager.
Daniel Vallere was indicted on one charge of vehicular homicide in the death of LaShanda Jones, 17. Jones died April 18 after being hit by a truck.
Eunice Police Officer Raymond Cole was one of two officers said to have stopped Vallere before his truck hit Jones. The other officer was cleared.
Jones was run over by a pickup truck, said to be driven by Vallere, as she walked with her finance Daryel Johnson on the side of Roosevelt Avenue in Eunice. She later died at the Eunice hospital from injuries she sustained from the accident.
Jones' mother Prenella Thomas said her family was satisfied with the outcome of the two-day grand jury proceedings that ended Tuesday.
Vallere, 44, was arrested the night of the accident and tested with a blood alcohol level of .18-grams percent. In Louisiana, a person is considered drunk if the blood alcohol level is .10 grams-percent.
The case has sparked a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the town of Eunice. The Thomas family claims Vallere was twice stopped by Eunice police earlier in the day and twice was allowed to continue driving. According to the lawsuit, Vallere sped away from the accident.
Cole, a 20-year veteran of the Eunice police department, was indicted for malfeasance because he is suspected of allowing Vallere to continue driving after realizing the man was operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
Thomas said she believes her daughter would still be alive today if the police had done their job.
Eunice Police Chief Gary "Goose" Fontenot was not available for comment after the grand jury handed down its decision.
A grand jury indictment is not a conviction.
Information from: The Daily World
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