The two owners (a husband and wife) are being charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide, because 34 residents of the nursing home drowned.
The charges stem from the deaths of elderly patients at St. Rita’s nursing home in Chalmette, located just southeast of New Orleans.
The patients drowned in the flooding after hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29.
"The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said.
"They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.”
Salvador Mangano and his wife, Mable, were released on $50,000 bail each.
Jim Cobb, their lawyer, said his clients followed the nursing home’s evacuation plan and that St. Bernard Parish officials were to blame.
"They sat and waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials of St. Bernard Parish that never came,” he said.
In addition, some of the patients were too frail to move, Cobb said.
I’m on the fence about this, and a lot is going to depend on the facts. One thing I would like to know is why the owners survived. Did they abandon their patients, and if so, when?
I know this shouldn’t be relevant, but take a look at their pictures:
They give me the heebee-jeebees. Especially her.