Texas: Harris County to try anti-gang legal action
HOUSTON (AP) — About 30 documented gang members suspected of selling drugs in a 700-unit apartment complex can expect civil action against them in a legal move aimed at creating a safety zone and cleaning up crime.
Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos said Tuesday that the Haverstock Hills neighborhood is a low-income community that has been terrorized by gangs. The county planned to seek its first civil injunction Wednesday against gangs.
Dozens of residents suspected of violating federal Housing and Urban Development regulations could also be cited, the Houston Chronicle reported for its Wednesday editions. Suing gang members in civil court means prosecutors can bar suspects from associating with each other.
Prosecutors said in August that they were trying to set up a 3-square-mile “gang safety zone” targeting gang members who have habitually engaged in at least five instances of organized criminal activity in a year’s span.
Similar lawsuits in other Texas cities have prohibited gang members from going out in public after 9 p.m. or possessing a cell phone in a car. Prosecutors also can prohibit gang clothing, gang hand signs and possession of spray paint for up to 10 years.
Violators can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso also have created gang safety zones. Bryan also used a civil injunction to force identified gang members to abide by strict rules within its 3-square-mile safety zone.
Louisiana: La. man pleads guilty in quadruple slaying case
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — Lee Roy Williams, 51, pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder Tuesday, hours after a Calcasieu Parish grand jury indicted him on the charges.
State District Judge Kent Savoie imposed four consecutive life sentences, a term agreed to by prosecutors and Williams’ defense counsel.
Williams was accused of killing four people on Sept. 4. District Attorney John DeRosier said the victims’ families agreed with the sentence.
Williams was accused of killing Crystal Dawn Fruge, 28; Kendrick Warren Lavergne, 29; Terry Lynn Banks, 19; and Jessica M. Eugene, 26, at a mobile-home park south of Lake Charles.
As part of the plea agreement, DeRosier dismissed a drug charge and said East Baton Rouge Parish prosecutors will dismiss two counts of attempted first-degree murder that accused Williams of trying to run over two people with his vehicle as he was being pursued.
DeRosier on Tuesday outlined the following slaying scenario in court:
Williams used a .380-caliber pistol to shoot Lavergne in the back of the head and shoot Banks in the head, after which he turned his attention to the two women, who were at the rear of the trailer.
Williams shot Fruge. The bullet went through her shoulder and into a wall, where it was found later by deputies.
He then confronted Eugene in the hall, where he struck her with a baseball bat. The force of the blow knocked her into a bathroom, where Williams continued to beat her with the bat and stabbed her repeatedly.
Williams returned to Fruge and used both the bat and the knife on her. After killing her, the defendant went back to the front of the trailer, where Banks had crawled to near the door.
Williams pulled the victim back, beat him with the bat and stabbed him several times.
DeRosier said all of those acts were committed with the specific intent to cause death, a requirement for first-degree murder.
Williams said he was satisfied with what DeRosier said about the slayings, although he disputed the order in which the district attorney said the killings occurred.
Victims’ families have say Williams told the families he was sorry for what had happened.
“I don’t know what else I can say,” he told the courtroom, crowded with family members, law officers and court employees.
Banks’ father told Williams during the proceedings that the state and the court had had mercy on him, “but Angola won’t.”
The family members and DeRosier said they didn’t know for sure why Williams killed the four people.
Sheriff Tony Mancuso noted later that Banks, in a recorded interview, told detectives he had “snapped” after learning the others were going to evict him from the trailer.
“This is what happens when you combine the impact of drugs and anger,” DeRosier said Tuesday. “It is compounded so much that you have incidents like this that take place and cost people lives and ruin families and just destroys their lives and leaves so many survivors who have been hurt for so many years.”
DeRosier said he explored in depth with the families the possibility of calling for the death penalty and that they were comfortable with his office’s sentencing recommendation.
And why would Williams plead guilty to receive four life sentences?
“I guess he doesn’t like the idea of the death penalty staring him in the face,” DeRosier said.
South Dakota: 7th lawsuit against MN nursing home filed in SD
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A seventh lawsuit has been filed in federal court in South Dakota over alleged elder abuse at a Minnesota nursing home.
The latest lawsuit claims like the others that the Sioux Falls-based Evangelical Good Samaritan Society failed to properly oversee employees at the home in Albert Lea.
A Minnesota Health Department investigation in May 2008 concluded that several nursing assistants mistreated dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. The Argus Leader reports that one woman has been sentenced to three months in jail in the case and another is to be sentenced in December.
In Minnesota, liability claims die with the victim. In South Dakota, families of victims can pursue civil claims on their behalf.
The Good Samaritan Society has sought to have the lawsuits filed in South Dakota dismissed.
