Louisiana

San Diego firefighters hospitalized while responding to Hurricane Helene recovery efforts

Published

2 years ago

October 1, 2024

San Diego firefighters hospitalized while responding to Hurricane Helene recovery efforts

SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— Three members of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 8 are in the hospital in Louisiana after getting into a crash while responding to Hurricane Helene relief efforts.

Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, leaving behind unimaginable death and destruction from Florida to North Carolina. Monday, President Biden addressed the tragedy and the firefighters severely injured in a crash on their way to help.

“They were in a terrible car accident in Louisiana. We pray for their full recovery, but it was a bad accident,” said the president.

The accident happened just before three am Sunday in a remote area near the Texas Louisiana Border. Three San Diego Fire-Rescue Department crew members were seriously injured. They include a battalion chief and two captains. They were in a Ford 350 that was involved in a crash with an 18-wheeler. It’s unclear what caused the crash. The victims were airlifted to Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

Back in San Diego, the non-profit Firefighter Aid is ready to help.

“It’s hard on the department. The firefighters are very close. Their department is very close. They are with each other everyday and have each other’s back, so when one bad thing happens to somebody, they feel it throughout,” said Sara Berns, Executive Director of Firefighter Aid.

ABC 10News was there Friday evening when members of California Task Force 8 loaded up into eighteen vehicles and headed east for North Carolina. The type III Water Rescue team includes thirty-two firefighters from San Diego’s Fire Rescue and firefighters from departments across the county.

Batallion Chief Aide Barbat talked about their past experience right before they left Friday evening.

“The team has deployed to many hurricanes. Katrina was probably the biggest even after that multiple hurricanes,” said Chief Barbat.

The task force has helped with search and rescue efforts during disasters as far back as Sept. 11. This is the first time members have been involved in a serious accident. The department has not released their names.

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Related Topics:accident Featured hurricane Hurricane Helene recovery efforts san diego fire

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Louisiana

Louisiana GOP races to keep an exonerated Black man from taking office in New Orleans

Published

6 hours ago

April 17, 2026

Press Room

Louisiana GOP races to keep an exonerated Black man from taking office in New Orleans

The Louisiana House Judiciary Committee April 16 passed a bill essentially eliminating New Orleans’ clerk of criminal court just weeks before Calvin Duncan, a Black man who was wrongfully imprisoned for decades before being elected to the position last year, is set to take office.

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Louisiana

Parole committee for people convicted by nonunanimous juries advances

Published

18 hours ago

April 16, 2026

Press Room

$Parole committee for people convicted by nonunanimous juries advances$

Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year.

Veronica Camenzuli
| LSU Manship School News Service

A Louisiana bill to review nonunanimous jury convictions advanced in a Senate committee.
The bill would create a temporary committee to recommend parole for incarcerated individuals.
The law allowing nonunanimous verdicts, rooted in an 1898 law to dilute Black jurors’ votes, was abolished in 2018.
Democrats and advocacy groups oppose the bill, arguing it does not go far enough to correct past injustices.

BATON ROUGE — A bill that would allow a committee to recommend parole to incarcerated Louisiana residents who received convictions through nonunanimous jury verdicts advanced 4-3 along party lines in a Senate judiciary committee.

Senate Bill 215 would allow the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to create a committee to review the appeal records of cases with nonunanimous convictions.

Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year. The committee would end after three years.

Democrats and advocacy groups opposed the bill, saying it did not go far enough to correct the problems.

The bill is meant to address possibly unjust convictions that are no longer legal in Louisiana after a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts passed in 2018.

The original law, allowing for convictions on as little as a 9-3 vote, was part of the 1898 constitutional convention, and it was designed to dilute Black jurors’ votes.

Louisiana changed the requirement to a 10-2 vote during the 1973 constitutional convention. Oregon, the only other state that allowed nonunanimous juries, had the same requirement.

Under the new bill, clerks of court would provide applicants with their records free of charge, and district attorneys and victims could respond at hearings.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Mandeville, who wrote the bill, said the legislation was a compromise between district attorneys who believed in the validity of convictions and criminal justice advocates.

“There’s likely not a way that either of those groups can come to a full consensus, but I think it was important to have the discussions and to continue to have the discussions,” McMath said.

Bradley R. Burget, president of the Louisiana District Attorney’s Association, supported the bill.

“We’re not exactly happy with it,” Burget said. “There’s a lot of the members of the DA’s association that may not be 100% for this, but I think this is something that they can live with.”

Zachary Daniels, the association’s executive director, liked the bill’s provision giving the committee authority to determine which nonunanimous convictions are just since “many of these contain strong evidence and are valid convictions where the prosecutor played by the rules at the time.”

Before the legislative session, the association found at least 1,215 cases a committee could analyze.

Daniels said it would be impossible to retry all of these cases because witnesses, officers and victims may no longer be available, and evidence may no longer exist.

The extensive list of issues the committee could consider includes the length of jury deliberations, the strength of the state’s case, the effectiveness of the defense attorney and evidence of racism.

Former Rep. Randal Gaines, who is now chair of the Democratic Party of Louisiana, filed a similar bill in 2022 that included the same list of issues that could be reviewed.

Herman Evans, who spent 37 years in prison after a nonunanimous jury convicted him in 1989 for a second-degree murder he did not commit, opposed the bill. Even after the perpetrator confessed in 2012, Evans did not get a hearing until 2024.

“That bill ain’t going to do nothing,” Evan said. “They’ve got the parole board. They’ve got the clemency board. It’s about the same board. And it costs about the same if you bring them back and let them get denied.”

Daniels said the expected cost to implement the bill is $1.8 million, based on a study resolution written for the 2025 legislative session by Sen. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine.

Owen also filed House Bill 219 that would allow courts to have resentencing hearings for nonunanimous convictions. The House Committee on Administration has not heard the bill yet.

One issue that arose in the meeting was the governor’s impact on the committee.

The governor would appoint to the committee three retired appellate court judges or Louisiana Supreme Court justices, one retired district attorney or assistant district attorney and one retired public defender.

The district attorney and public defender appointees would come from a list of three nominations from the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the state public defender.

Although all five members would need to agree that a conviction was unfair, the current bill would allow the governor to make final decisions on releasing applicants.

The current bill does not provide details on the governor’s power. Daniels said the bill would eventually include that language after input from attorneys from the governor’s office.

Daniels also noted that there may be some conflict between the committee’s final decision and Gov. Jeff Landry’s tough-on-crime approach.

Sarah Gozalo of the Promise of Justice Initiative expressed concerns about the governor’s ultimate power.

“If we find that miscarriage of justice, the solution is, we will ask the governor — the one person who, in 2018, opposed getting rid of nonunanimous jurors,” Gozalo said.

Other opponents of the bill suggested keeping the bill in committee until it was amended to address their concerns.

Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voice of the Experienced, and Erica Navalance, a criminal defense attorney, recommended adding post-conviction evidence to the records the committee sees to prove claims of ineffective defense counsel or prosecutorial misconduct.

McMath declined to defer the bill.

“I think that holding it up in this committee doesn’t necessarily give the chance to continue to move on through the process, where we all know that things sometimes can change and get new input,” McMath said.

Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, who had a similar bill in 2025 that did not pass, objected to the bill’s advancement.

“Just know that this is not an easy objection for me,” Duplessis said. “And if this bill does advance, I want to continue, or at least I want to work with you, to try to find a solution, because it’s been stated repeatedly, we’re not quite there.”

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Louisiana

Herrmann’s resilience anchors Louisiana’s pitching staff

Published

1 day ago

April 16, 2026

Press Room

Herrmann’s resilience anchors Louisiana’s pitching staff

LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s success on the mound this season has started with one name at the top of the rotation: Andrew Herrmann.

The fifth-year senior has been the backbone of the Ragin’ Cajuns’ pitching staff, leading the nation in innings pitched (63.2), starts (10) and complete games (three). His durability and consistency have helped stabilize a Louisiana team that has relied heavily on its arms throughout the year.

Herrmann’s journey to this point, however, hasn’t been smooth.

Throughout his collegiate career, he battled shoulder injuries that impacted his velocity and threatened to derail his development. Instead of fading, Herrmann adjusted, dedicating significant time to rehabilitation and refining his mechanics.

He credits pitching coach Taylor Sandefur for helping him regain form and confidence on the mound.

The work has paid off, as Herrmann has emerged not only as a statistical leader, but also as an emotional cornerstone for the team.

“This team, I mean the amount of hours we put out on the baseball field just working together,” Herrmann said. “I’d die for this team. I’d die for each one of those guys. … Just being able to work with those guys and see the effort that they put in each day has really kind of drawn me to it.”

For Herrmann, the season is about more than numbers. In his final year, his focus is on leaving a lasting impact on the program and helping elevate those around him.

Louisiana will look to continue its momentum this weekend with a three-game Sun Belt road series at Troy. The series opener is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m.

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