Tagged: crime

A New Orleans city councilman is resigning his office after pleading guilty to corruption. Federal charges link Hurricane Katrina relief to the politician’s failed-campaign fund.

A New Orleans city councilman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal criminal charge of misusing federal money intended to help a nonprofit organization after Hurricane Katrina and diverting some of it to one of his political campaigns.

Jon Johnson, who is 63, faces up to 5 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk set sentencing for Oct. 25.

Johnson said he will resign from his seat on the council.

A teenage son of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

A spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department says 19-year-old Benjamin Landrieu was arrested early Tuesday. He was booked into the city's jail on charges that also include reckless operation of a vehicle.

The mayor said in a statement that his loves his son but there will be legal consequences for his actions in the courtroom and "family discussions in our living room." Mitch Landrieu also said his son will be treated "just as any other citizen."

A St. John the Baptist Parish couple found hiding in Georgia after they failed to show up for a trial in the death of the woman's 8-year-old son are back in Louisiana.

The Times-Picayune reports (http://bit.ly/SEHmcg) that 46-year-old Errol Victor and 38-year-old Tonya Victor had a court hearing Monday in LaPlace.

The couple disappeared on the eve of their second-degree murder trial last August and was arrested in Tifton, Ga., on April 14, after being featured on an episode of "America's Most Wanted."

WATERPROOF, La. — Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones says he isn't sure how an escaped inmate stole and drove an unmarked police car 1,800 miles across the country, but he says it won't happen again.

Forty-three-year-old Benjamin Gottke was a trustee in the Tensas Sheriff's Office kitchen.

Last week, he acquired keys to an unmarked police car.

He was arrested in Maine on Saturday after he fled authorities while attempting to enter Canada. He had been serving time for simple burglary and had about nine months left on his sentence.