Gov. Testifies in Katrina Trial

Katrina

Posted Aug 29, 2007, 07:54 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Prosecutors made a pre-emptive move yesterday by calling Louisiana’s governor to testify in the trial of two nursing home owners accused of failing to prevent 35 Katrina-related deaths.

The testimony of Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was not a clear victory for either side, the New York Times reports. She testified in the trial of the owners of St. Rita’s nursing home, who are accused of negligent homicide for failing to evacuate 35 residents who drowned as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Defendants contend that Blanco should have issued a mandatory evacuation order that would have required the owners, Salvador and Mabel Mangano, to move the residents. Seeking to blunt that defense, prosecutors called Blanco to testify before the defendants could do so.

Blanco agreed with prosecutors that she did not call for mandatory evacuation because local officials were taking the lead. “I did not issue that order, because all of the local governments were deeply engaged in getting people out and helping them to evacuate,” she testified.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune called Blanco’s testimony “a mini-trial within the trial.” Blanco defended her actions, testifying that she had declared a state of emergency before Katrina reached the coast and held frequent news conferences to urge evacuation and warn of the dangers.

State officials were “scrambling to make sense out of a situation that had nothing sensible about it,” she said.

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