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A former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputy pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing drugs during traffic stops and giving them to his girlfriend. Kenneth Szalajeski, 36, of Folsom, faced two counts of malfeasance and two counts of distribution of marijuana in connection with incidents in May and October 2016. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with four years suspended, on both malfeasance counts, and 10 years, with nine years suspended, on the distribution counts. The sentences will be served concurrently, effectively giving Szalajeski one year of jail time, followed by three years of probation. He faced up to...

At the tiny Talisheek Grocery in rural northeastern St. Tammany Parish, James R. Moore Jr. was a regular, coming in twice a day to buy as many as eight 12- to 16-ounce Red Bulls for his own consumption. Many suspected he also had a drug problem, according to store owner Tracy Moore, who said she is not related to Moore but has known him since childhood. Still, she and a friend said they were shocked to learn that Moore, 46, had been arrested by an FBI-led SWAT team and accused of being major methamphetamine dealer and militia leader with access...

It is said that every dog has his day. Friday, Oct. 23, 2015 was Thor's. Before a large and appreciative crowd outside the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse, the Belgian Malinois police dog was hailed as a hero for saving his human partner's life during a burglary investigation this week near Mandeville. Deputy Thor, a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office K-9, suffered a serious wound to the neck as he put himself between Deputy Ronald Olivier and a suspect who lunged at them with a six-inch switchblade, police said. The suspect was shot and killed by deputies. After undergoing surgery and...

The former boyfriend of a Bogalusa woman is one of two brothers that have been arrested in connection with her death and the "cold and calculated" attempted cover up of the crime, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said Monday (Oct. 19.)The body of Nanette Me'Shell King, 41, was found inside a burned-out vehicle outside the village of Sun Oct. 11. Gary Lee Harris, 53, was booked with second-degree murder. His brother, Ray Harris, 64, was booked with accessory, the Sheriff's Office said. Gary Harris is King's former boyfriend of more than 20 years. The two have a 17-year-old daughter...

A St. Tammany Sheriff's Office reserve deputy was stripped of his commission and arrested Saturday night (April 11) after authorities said he drunkenly stole a department patrol boat and crashed it into a piling outside a riverfront bar-restaurant in Madisonville. Danny Eckhart was not acting in any official capacity when he boarded a patrol boat docked on the Tchefuncte River and drove it downriver to the popular T Rivers Bar and Grill, St. Tammany sheriff's spokesman Capt. George Bonnett said Sunday. As Eckhart piloted the boat, Bonnett said he caused damage of an unknown amount to the craft when he...

NEW ORLEANS -- NEW ORLEANS (AP) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is designating nearly 6,500 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana as critical habitat for the endangered Mississippi gopher frog the only endangered or threatened frog in the Southeast. About 100 live in the wild, and nearly 900 in zoos. The land includes about 1,540 acres in St. Tammany Parish, La., and in Mississippi, about 3,500 acres of federal land, 264 acres owned by the state and the rest private. Edward Poitevent, whose family owns most of the Louisiana land, has been fighting the designation. He says he cannot comment...

At least one young man in St. Tammany Parish and another in St. Martin Parish committed suicide shortly after getting high from ingesting a synthetic chemical sold as Cloud Nine High Quality Bath Salt and White Dove, law enforcement officials warned Monday.A pack of the product costs no more than $20, and some people inject or snort it to experience a euphoria similar to the one associated with the amphetamine known on the streets as "speed." However, the psychotic side effects it produces are unusually severe, St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed and Sheriff Jack Strain said during a news...

From the start of a nearly three-hour debate on the state's push for including St. Tammany Parish in the new federal Race to the Top program, it was evident the overwhelming majority of School Board members were leery about getting involved.The Obama administration unveiled Race to the Top last summer as a $4.35 billion education reform program aimed at getting schools to better track students' progress. In Covington late Tuesday, the St. Tammany School Board's final tally against particpating was 9-6, but even most of those who voted for board President John Lamarque to sign the partnership agreement did so...

A Bush man was found guilty on Wednesday of having helped Dominic Robinson escape and cover up evidence after the killing of Samantha Jaume, the Mandeville-area homemaker murdered in front of her children on Independence Day, 2001. A St. Tammany Parish jury took less than an hour to find Zlatico "Zack" Brujic, 33, guilty of obstruction of justice, a charge that - because Brujic has a prior felony on his record - could garner 20 to 80 years in prison. State Judge Raymond Childress scheduled sentencing for Dec. 16. On July 4, 2001, Robinson followed Jaume, 25, and her four...

A Slidell man shot and killed his neighbor's two pit bulls after they attacked him and his dog Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The man was in his home on Maris Stella Street about 1 p.m. when he saw the pit bulls enter his yard and attack his dog, Slidell Police Lt. Ray Dupuy said on the scene. The man's dog appeared to be a Labrador-Rottweiler mix, Dupuy said. The man rushed in to protect his dog, at which point the pit bulls turned on him, Dupuy said. The resident then went inside and got a handgun, shooting both dogs when...

A woman found slain in rural St. Tammany Parish on Monday was shot to death by the head of a Ku Klux Klan chapter from Bogalusa after she tried to back out of an initiation ritual, St. Tammany Parish authorities announced Tuesday. Investigators have not positively identified the woman yet, but believe she is from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said. She apparently had come to Louisiana by bus after applying to join the organization over the Internet and had intended to start recruiting others in Oklahoma, he said. The woman and eight members of...

On a day typical in its heat and humidity, with the end of summer vacation fast approaching, a swim in a neighborhood pond seemed a fine idea to 11-year-old Devin Funck and two of his friends.Big Joe had other ideas.At 10 feet, 8 inches long and weighing an estimated 500 pounds, the alligator was a familiar sight in the ponds abutting Kingspoint and Fox Hollow subdivisions near Slidell, familiar enough that locals long ago gave the reptile its ominous nickname.As Devin and his companions splashed and frolicked in Crystal Lake on Wednesday afternoon, they spotted the imposing creature swimming toward...

A Slidell-area couple whose house was sold for a $1.63 property tax bill they knew nothing about will have clear title to their home today, thanks to a local businessman who paid to settle a years-old lawsuit with the land company that claimed their property. "I don't even know who to thank," said Dolores Atwood. "But I'm relieved and happy that this is finally over . . . I'm relieved and tired." Atwood and her husband, Kermit, will again be the unquestioned owners of their house at 4122 Dauphine St. because a St. Tammany Parish businessman and his partner volunteered...

False claim gets man 15 months He told FEMA he lived in N.O. in '05 Saturday, June 16, 2007 By Bruce Hamilton A Covington man will spend 15 months in federal prison for taking $6,791 in Federal Emergency Management Agency aid after falsely claiming he was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. The address Kenneth T. Earlycutt gave FEMA was in a public housing development, but the corresponding building had been razed long before the hurricane hit. U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk sentenced him Thursday, and he will be in custody today when he turns 26. Earlycutt...

Judge halts cutoff of rental aid FEMA must give notice in advance By Susan Finch In a strongly worded ruling, a New Orleans federal judge this week ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to stop cutting off rental assistance to low-income Hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuees without giving them advance written notice of reasons for the action or telling them they have a right a hearing on the matter. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan issued the ruling in response to an April lawsuit brought on behalf of evacuees who still need the help after losing everything in the 2005 storm,...

4 indicted in death of migrant worker Saturday, June 16, 2007 By Bruce Hamilton A St. Tammany Parish grand jury has indicted four teenagers on second-degree murder charges in the shooting death of an El Salvadoran man killed during a bungled robbery April 29, according to the district attorney's office. The four teenagers are charged in the death of Jose Luis Martinez-Carpio, 36, who was shot three times in the torso. Police said he grabbed a kitchen utensil to fend off two masked men who stormed the trailer he shared with six other migrant workers. Sheriff Jack Strain said the...