School bus driver arrested after taking pills

A Barbe Elementary school bus driver was arrested early Wednesday for driving while intoxicated, according to authorities.

At around 6:30 a.m., Calcasieu deputies responded to a call about an erratic school bus driver on Elliott Road in south Lake Charles.

Another bus driver reportedly forced Brandi N. Hood, 32, of Sulphur to pull into the parking lot of St. John’s Elementary School.

There were no students on the bus.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Cpl. Robert Shortridge found that Hood was too impaired to perform a field sobriety test.

After Hood blew a .000 on a breath-alcohol test, deputies took her to a local hospital to draw blood for a toxicology report. Results reportedly take about a month.

Hood reportedly told deputies that she had taken Soma and Loracet pills earlier that morning.

The Calcasieu Parish School Board will use information from the arrest report in its internal investigation, said Charlene Chaisson, the school system’s public information officer.

“Officials look at things such as if there was a dereliction of duty or inappropriate actions during work hours,” Chaisson said.

She could not comment specifically on the Hood investigation because she said school officials are not allowed to publicly discuss personnel issues.

$68,000 worth of drugs seized

*published Nov. 3, 2009

Three traffic stops on I-10 lead to busts
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
Three separate traffic stops on Interstate 10 last week led to the seizure of more than $68,000 in prescription pills and illegal drugs — not record confiscations but a “significant pop,” said Lt. Billy Chapman, director of the Combined Anti-Drug Task Force.

At 6 p.m. Oct. 25, officers reportedly stopped Sylvinnia S. Moore, 28, and Samantha J. Lewis, 21, both of Mobile, Ala., on Interstate 10 in Lake Charles and found 120 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of their rented vehicle. They were traveling from Houston to Mobile, officers said.

At 9 p.m. Oct. 28, officers reportedly stopped Jonathan K. Kennerson, 23, of Houston, and Camiece M. Groves, 21, of Huffman, Texas, and found three bags — with 2,016 hydrocodone pills and 504 Xanax pills — hidden in the fender of their car. Kennerson was going to Lafayette, officers said.

At about midnight Oct. 29, officers stopped John H. LeGros, 30, of Roanoke, near Vinton and found 613 Lorcet pills and 46 Somas in his vehicle.

Sheriff Tony Mancuso said the seizures were significant because District Attorney John DeRosier has been working hard to help control prescription drug abuse in the area.

“These are the pills that have been killing our young people in Calcasieu Parish,” DeRosier said.

He said state doctor-shopping laws and prescription pill monitoring systems have made it difficult for people to get such large amounts of drugs in the state.

“We made strides this year with the Texas Legislature passing laws to regulate pain management clinics,” he said. “We still have to get a doctor shopping statute there.”

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Mancuso said agencies here are working with the Houston police, Harris Country deputies, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and drug task forces in Lafayette and Mobile.

“It’s been so important to combine our efforts with other local and federal law enforcement,” Mancuso said. “We have major waterways and a major interstate coming through the parish.”

Sgt. Gene Pittman with the local task force said well over 90 percent of the drugs in the area come in through Houston.

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