AIDS Council hosts open house
*published Dec. 2, 2009
Southwest Louisiana AIDS Council case manager Candice Pauley shows Andie Hoeflicker some of the literature available at the agency during their open house in observation of World AIDS Day on Tuesday. BY KAREN E. WINK
Looks to spread word about services
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
In the five-parish area this year, 1,180 new cases of HIV/ AIDS have been reported, according to statistics compiled by the state Department of Health and Hospitals.
For World AIDS Day on Tuesday the Southwest Louisiana AIDS Council, at 1715 Common St., hosted an open house to let area residents “know we are here and the services we offer,” said program director Kelli Barnes.
Barnes said some people still believe HIV/AIDS is a gay disease or only prevalent in Africa.
DHH’s quarterly survey says that as of last September, 430 people have died of AIDS in the Region 5 area and 903 people are living with HIV or AIDS.
Region 5 consists of Allen, Beauregard, Cameron, Calcasieu and Jeff Davis parishes.
Of those living with HIV/AIDS, 58 percent are black, 32 percent are white, and the remaining 10 percent are Hispanic, Indian or Asian. Twenty-two percent are female, and 77 percent are male.
“I always tell people, ‘HIV doesn’t play,’ ” said Gilbert Brown, a prevention outreach counselor with SLAC. “It doesn’t care about your sex or race or age.”
Brown has been working with SLAC full time since April, but started volunteering as a student at McNeese. When people come in for testing, he lets them know that the test is anonymous.
“We are held to the same oaths as a doctor. I go so far as to lock the door (in my office) when we are talking,” Brown said.
“I have to ask them questions about their sexual behavior, so their honest answers is what we use to create a risk prevention plan.”
The AIDS council uses a mouth swab test that takes about 20 minutes. If a person is negative, Brown and the client then develop a prevention plan. If a person tests positive in the initial visit, Brown performs a second test, which is sent to the state lab for analysis.
“Results take about a week, and we always call the person in, regardless of the results,” Brown said.
In discussing prevention methods, Brown said there are adults who don’t know about female condoms or how to properly use them.
Do you know the first step when using a male condom? Always check the expiration date, Brown said.
SLAC has case managers who specialize in different areas for clients, such as finding out what services are available under patients’ health plans. The council’s phone number is 439-5861.
link: http://bit.ly/4qtunx
Add comment 12/02/2009
Time of essence in case
*published Dec. 1, 2009
Immigration issue clouds outlook in slaying of teen
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
Setbacks at every step have slowed the investigation into the death of Moss Bluff woman Sierra Bouzigard, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said Monday.
“It took us 12 hours to identify the body,” he said. “That was 12 hours where we didn’t have a direction to go, didn’t know who to speak to first.”
The body of Bouzigard, 19, was found at 7:40 a.m. Nov. 23 on the side of John Koonce Road in Moss Bluff. Parish Coroner Dr. Terry Welke has ruled that she died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Since last Monday, Mancuso said detectives have talked to 22 people who may have known or had contact with Bouzigard.
“It appears she made several visits to different people in the Moss Bluff area on Sunday,” Mancuso said.
He said much of the case hinges on crime lab results and phone records from several of the people investigators have interviewed.
“The phone companies have told us that they can get us the records within 14 days,” Mancuso said. “We want the records to corroborate some stories and hopefully figure out where she was last.”
He would not discuss the possibility that another area had been checked for evidence.
“Because we’re dealing with the real world, we need people to understand that it will take time to get results back from our crime lab,” Mancuso said.
On average, results can take from two weeks to 30 days to process because of certain procedures and the requirement that the results be verified by multiple forensic specialists.
Of the people interviewed in the case, 16 were illegal immigrants.
Calcasieu Correctional Center book-in records show they were arrested on Nov. 25 and lived in two apartments on Sistrick Road, off Sam Houston Jones Parkway.
Detectives said two Sheriff’s Office interpreters worked around the clock, with a federal interpreter, to handle the interviews.
Because detectives had filed no local charges, the immigrants were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and are now at a federal detention center in Basile.
They are charged with entry without inspection — a federal misdemeanor.
Mancuso said their immigration status is an issue because the Sheriff’s Office does not have jurisdiction over illegal immigrants.
Deportation proceedings have begun, and processing will reportedly take about a month.
“I can’t promise we will have enough by then,” Mancuso said.
If one of the deported immigrants becomes a suspect, Mancuso said his department would have to issue an arrest warrant.
“It is a problems for us,” he said. “He would have to be located there, and then we would need that country’s government to cooperate.”
He noted that a rape-homicide case remains open because of a similar situation.
On Feb. 19, 2008, the body of Wanda Barton, 26, was found in her mobile home.
Deputies listed 20-year-old Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara as a person of interest and said they believed he fled to Dallas and then back to his hometown of Rioverde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
In April 2008, a grand jury indicted Garcia Guevara on charges of second-degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated burglary. He is still at large.
Mancuso would not say how Bouzigard was connected with any of the people detectives interviewed.
He said there are no suspects at this time, only persons of interest, and that no charges have been filed in the case.
“We still have a long ways to go in this investigation,” Mancuso said.
link: http://bit.ly/6czQWm
Add comment 12/01/2009
4,500 pills found during traffic stop
*published Nov. 20, 2009
Bags and pills recovered from Thursday’s traffic stop. BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
A traffic stop on Interstate 10 on Thursday led to the discovery of about 4,500 prescription pills, authorities said.
Cpl. William Kettler, a drug task force member, reportedly stopped Chasady L. Hargrave, 24, of Houma, at about 2 p.m. on I-10 East near Enterprise Boulevard.
A search of the car, done with Hargrave’s consent, turned up 25 paper bags, each containing four bottles of pills, authorities said. The drugs — including 3,000 hydrocone pills and 1,500 alprazolam, or Xanax, pills — are worth about $30,000, officials said.
Lt. Billy Chapman said officers aren’t sure what the other two types of pills were. None of the bottles had labels, authorities said.
The most common way for people to get large quantities of prescription drugs is to “doctor shop” and take the same prescription to multiple pain management clinics, acquiring a month’s worth of pills at each place.
“This is new, so our officers are still trying to figure out where these came from,” Chapman said.
Hargrave was charged with possession of Schedules III and IV drugs with intent to distribute.
link: http://bit.ly/68DpxF
Add comment 11/20/2009
Police standoff
*published Nov. 17, 2009
A negotiator with the Lake Charles Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team speaks with an unidentified man involved in the standoff at his residence on the 800 block of 18th Street. BY KAREN E. WINK
Monday’s incident has peaceful conclusion
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
A two-hour standoff involving a man barricaded in a Lake Charles residence ended peacefully Monday morning.
Lake Charles police were called to a home in the 800 block of 18th Street at around 9:30 a.m. in regard to a man with two knives, said Sgt. Mark Kraus.
He said an officer had gone to the home to serve the man with an order of protective custody, at which point the man barricaded himself in the house.
“We determined that the man was having some emotional distress, so we called in members of the crisis intervention team,” Kraus said.
During the two hours, officers were seen speaking to the man through a window. He also came outside three times, but during those times officers could not apprehend him.
On different occasions, two family members accompanied officers to the house in attempts to convince the man to surrender.
SWAT officers eventually entered the house and took the man into custody. Kraus said the man is at a local hospital receiving a psychiatric evaluation.
“It’s unlikely that we will press any criminal charges,” Kraus said.
link: http://bit.ly/LfopF
Add comment 11/17/2009
Two men convicted on drug-trafficking charges
*published Nov. 14, 2009
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
After 8 1/2 hours of deliberation over two days, a federal jury found two men guilty of four drug-trafficking charges on Friday.
Roberto Zamora was found guilty of conspiracy to possess cocaine and other drugs for later distribution and of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
Fletcher Freeman Jr. was found guilty of conspiracy to possess cocaine and other drugs and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
The jury of five men and seven women deliberated 3:30-10:15 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m.-10:45 a.m. Friday before returning unanimous verdicts.
The case stems from traffic stops that resulted in drug seizures in Calcasieu and Jeff Davis parishes in 2002 and 2003. The seizures led Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to investigate a drug ring run by Francisco Chapa-Duran, who is reportedly based in Reynosa, Mexico.
Agents reportedly discovered drug-trafficking hubs in Columbus, Ga., Houston, and numerous locations in Florida and North Carolina.
The indictment began with 19 defendants. Officials said 13 pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate; four remain fugitives in Mexico; and Zamora and Freeman were convicted.
Those who pleaded guilty were among the 39 witnesses called by prosecutors. Others included federal and local law enforcement officers and evidence technicians.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Grayson said at least one fugitive is believed to be dead, but that officials are unsure.
Zamora and Freeman will be sentenced on Feb. 11. They face 10 to 20 years on the conspiracy charge and up to five for the possession charges.
link: http://bit.ly/3xfS9
Add comment 11/14/2009
Local police break record for seized prescriptions
*Nov. 9, 2009
Task force director: Cooperation between states, laws necessary
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
Local law enforcers seized more than 3,100 prescription pills last week, pushing them past their 2008 record of 7,244 illegal pills confiscated, according to Combined Anti-Drug Task Force statistics.
Director Lt. Billy Chapman says he thinks good law enforcement has contributed to those numbers, but there are other factors that are more important.
In 2007, 56 people overdosed on prescription drugs in Calcasieu Parish. In 2008, there were 33 overdoses. So far this year, there have been 23.
“It’s a gradual decrease as we get everything working together,” Chapman said.
“Everything” isn’t just in Louisiana. Chapman said about 95 percent of all illegal drugs in Southwest Louisi–ana are coming from southeast Texas.
“We have local and federal officers we speak to every week in Houston and Orange and Beaumont,” Chapman said. “But they (in Texas) don’t have the laws in place yet to make arrests.”
The laws he is referring to would be similar to doctor shopping, drug-monitoring and labeling statutes in Louisiana that have been passed in the past three or four years.
A doctor-shopping bill would make it a felony to have a prescription filled at multiple clinics or pharmacies within a certain amount of time.
The Louisiana prescription drug-monitoring law gave the go-ahead to set up a database — accessible only by doctors, pharmacists and law enforcers — that shows how much of a scheduled drug was prescribed to a person in the state.
The most-recent law passed in Louisiana was to change Soma from a legend drug to a schedule IV drug. As a legend drug, doctors and pharmacists did not have to report how much of the drug they were prescribing and dispensing.
“This was a big step, because Soma is part of that trilogy of pills — along with hydrocodone and Xanax — people are getting when they doctor shop.
These laws have made it difficult to get large quantities of prescription pills in Louisiana, but a large supply is available across the border in Texas.
Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier had been working with Texas legislators to push through tougher regulations of prescription pills.
In this latest session, Texas passed a law that required all pain management clinics to be owned by a physician registered with the state board of health.
“Before, anybody could own a clinic and hire a doctor to run it,” Chapman said. “So what we were finding is the doctor was only there a few days a week and doctor’s assistants and nurses were writing the majority of the prescriptions.”
Texas’ Legislature meets every two years, instead of every year.
“People always need to understand that this takes time,” Chapman said. “When we got the prescription monitoring law passed, it took another year for us to get the database set up, and there is always something we can fix.”
A doctor-shopping bill will be presented in the next Texas Legislature.
“After that we’ll be rocking and rolling,” Chapman said. “The goal is always to stop it from even getting out there.”
link: http://bit.ly/3tkGTi
Add comment 11/09/2009
