Lafourche Parish Sherriff deputies are investigating an incident where a woman and her daughter were held captive over the weekend and a rape occurred. Brooke Thorington has more.
Cut 1 (31) “I’m Brooke Thorington”
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Former LSU student Matthew Naquin faces up to five years in prison after a jury found him guilty of negligent homicide in the alcohol-induced hazing death of Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge Max Gruver.
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While the state prepared for Hurricane Barry, Lafourche Parish authorities say a woman was raped and held captive along with her daughter by a Cut Off man. Lt Brennan Matherne with the Lafourche Parish Sherriff’s says 52-year old Morgan Radley faces several charges. Matherne says the victims escaped Sunday morning after being held against their will since Friday night.
Matherne says Ratley used duct tape to restrain the woman and her daughter tried to use her cellphone to call for help.
Matherne says the suspect would not give the victims a reason as to why he held them captive or what motivated the incident.
Cut 5 (10) “…specific reason.”
Radley was booked at the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex and bail is set at $135,000. The identities of the victims are being withheld to protect them
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The latest data from LSU’s Center for Geoinformatics shows Louisiana is sinking. A closer look at elevation changes over the last three decades shows Alexandria is down by 49 millimeters, Old River down by 34mm, and Lake Charles down by 16mm. LSU Chief of Geodesy Cliff Mugnier says there are several factors that may be causing the sinking.
Boothville sunk by 13 mm with Ruston sinking by 9mm. But places like Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Oakdale, Hammond, and Shreveport remained unchanged.
Mugnier says the research measures the changes in elevation to apparent subsidence and it generates data for the National Geodetic Survey.
Some areas gained elevation over the last thirty years, including Thibodaux by 7mm, Sicily Island by 8mm, Rayville by 13mm, and Natchitoches by 17mm.
Mugnier says the data will also be important for emergency operations.
Cut 8 (10) “…the roads flood.”
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It took jurors less than an hour to convict Former LSU fraternity member Matthew Naquin of Negligent Homicide in the hazing death of Maxwell Gruver in 2017. East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore says no matter what today’s verdict was going to be, the case will have a lasting impact on combatting hazing with the legislative passage of a much harsher set of felony-level hazing penalties.
The prosecution says Naquin was the ringleader of the hazing incident where Gruver was pressured into drinking himself to death.
The victim’s father, Stephen Gruver, says this trial will send a loud message to the nation about the hazing culture on college campuses.
Cut 10 (09) “…cannout be tolerated.”
The 21-year-old Naquin faces anywhere from probation to five years in prison and he’ll be sentenced in October. He’s also been charged with Obstruction of Justice for deleting hundreds of files and texts from his cell phone before turning the device over to authorities.
Lead Prosecutor Morgan Johnson says the way the victim’s family handled the case was inspiring.
The incident resulted in the banning of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity from campus until at least 2033.
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US Representative Mike Johnson calls recently spotlighted tweets from President Trump unfortunate. Johnson, a Republican from Bossier City, says he has a good relationship with the four progressive representatives in the crosshairs of the President’s tweets, but is not surprised at Trump’s retort to their criticism of the way the nation is being run.
Cut 12 (12) “…fighter by nature.”
Johnson says the bigger issue facing the country is the partisan divide keeping bipartisan legislation from moving forward.
Cut 13 (10) “…this partisan squabbling.”
Johnson says there are only a handful of moderate Democrats left in the House, and those people are on edge from the partisan squabbling. But it’s the loudest element of the chamber that garners all of the attention, and may result in the party as a whole making a shift.