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Claude James “Jim” Christy, a Morgan City native who investigated organized crime and terrorism as an FBI agent before coming back to lead his hometown police department, has died.

A visitation is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at Twin City Funeral Home in Morgan City. A funeral Mass is slated for 11 a.m. Jan. 12 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Morgan City.

Christy was born in Morgan City "across the bayou from an island granted to his great-great-grandfather for service in the War of 1812," according to his obituary. The obituary doesn't list his age, but dates in a 2007 newspaper profile indicate that he would be 82.

Christy attended what was then Sacred Heart Catholic School and LSU before serving in the Marine Corps. After he left the Marines in 1965, Christy joined the FBI.

According to a 2007 profile in the Houma Courier, Christy eventually headed the St. Louis FBI office, where his work included investigation of organized crime. He moved on to work in international terrorism investigations, including the probe into the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. That attack was later linked to two members of Libyan intelligence and led to an admission of guilt and reparations from the Libyan government.

Christy served as head of security for the Hill Behan Lumber Co. after leaving the FBI in 1994. He was appointed police chief in Morgan City in 2002.

He resigned that post in 2009, citing personal reasons.

Christy is survived by his wife, Gail, and four children.

Christy will be buried at Morgan City Cemetery with military honors rendered by the United States Marine Corps Funeral Honor Guard and the East St. Mary Veterans Funeral Squad.

BATON ROUGE — Chlanda Gibson was in her bed last April when she heard loud pops outside her window.
She had fallen asleep while waiting for her son, 17-year-old Roddrick Cook, to come home after going out with friends. When she went to check on the noise, his friends knocked on the back door for help — one with a gunshot wound in his leg.
Cook was nowhere to be found, and as police investigated, Gibson sat in the back of a police cruiser, where she spent five dark hours wondering what had happened to him. Then she was given the devastating news: Her son, the 6-foot 4-inch, 250-pound high school football player who dreamed of going to the NFL, had been killed that night.
Gibson’s son still sits on the long list of Baton Rouge murders that remain unsolved. That list includes more than half of the city’s 121 homicides in 2021 as murder rates continue to soar nationwide.
The national surge in homicide rates stems from a variety of political and socioeconomic factors, trends to which Louisiana has proven far from immune. The Baton Rouge area, Shreveport, Alexandria and Lafayette all had record numbers of homicides in 2021, and New Orleans had 218 murders, the most since before its population fell with Hurricane Katrina.
As the killings stack up, clearance rates–the percentage of cases closed–has shriveled in some cities, and even cities that are solving most of their murders are struggling through staffing shortages to keep up.
The number of murders increased by 30% nationally in 2020, and the national average for homicide clearance rates dropped nearly 10 percentage points, to 51.3%. The Murder Accountability Project, which analyzes FBI homicide data collected from local agencies nationwide, said that was the worst single-year drop and the lowest murder clearance rate on record.
In Louisiana, the average clearance rate saw a drop of 9.7 percentage points in 2020, to 50.6%, according to data compiled by the accountability project, and some police departments experienced lower numbers.
The New Orleans and Alexandria departments solved fewer than one-third of their homicide cases in 2020, the project’s website indicates, while Lafayette’s department solved about 35%.
Some of these clearance rates bounced back in 2021, with Lafayette solving 24 of its record 25 murders and Alexandria 29 of its 34. But other departments still struggle.
The Baton Rouge Police Department achieved a clearance rate of 62% in 2020 but solved only about 46% of cases in 2021 as East Baton Rouge Parish broke its homicide record for the second consecutive year. The New Orleans Police Department’s homicide-clearance rate was recently running at about 50% of cases.
Shreveport had 90 homicides in 2021, though a few might prove to be justified, Sgt. Angie Willhite, a police spokeswoman, said. She estimated that about 60% of the cases had been closed. She said her department would not have a final tally until the FBI approves its year-end report.
New Orleans crime analyst Jeff Asher said there is no clear cause for the homicide rate skyrocketing, though the COVID-19 pandemic, attitudes toward police in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests and increased firearm usage are all contributing factors.
Louisiana has long had one of the highest homicide rates in the country, Asher said, thanks to poverty, low education, violent tendencies from mass incarceration and widespread gun accessibility.
“We’ve got all of the problems,” Asher said. “We just have everything that you might think would make murder more prevalent or make murder clearance rates more difficult. We have them in spades, whereas other states might be missing only one or two ingredients.”
Shooting deaths in particular–which are prevalent in Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–tend to be the hardest type to solve, Asher noted. There are typically fewer witnesses, more premeditation and less evidence since the assailant is further away.
“A murder investigation, in reality, is just a grind,” said LSU sociology professor Edward Shihadeh. “It’s like sanding wood. You’re going to grab a pile of receipts, a pile of witness statements, a pile of evidence, and then you just kind of grind through it, slowly, slowly, slowly, and build a case.”
And these obstacles have been further exacerbated at police departments by low funding, an embattled public image and staffing shortages nationwide due to COVID-19.
BRPD spokesman L’Jean McKneely said staffing shortages have created manpower problems across the department, not just in homicide. Lafayette’s police department also has faced shortages.
“If you have a short patrol presence, you’re going to have more street crime, because those guys can’t be proactive. They’re reactive to every call,” said Lafayette detective Stephen Bajat.
NOPD has had more than130 officers leave the department in 2021 through resignations, retirements, terminations and deaths, Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said at a City Council meeting last month.
“This isn’t anything unique to New Orleans, but across the country,” Ferguson said. “This profession has taken such a major blow with criticism.”
Lt. Lane Windham of the Alexandria Police Department said most of the homicides there involve young people, typically from 15 to 25 years old. Most stem from drug deals or robberies “gone bad” or from domestic abuse.
He said that security cameras and cell-phone records are often crucial to solving crimes.
Bajat agreed that video surveillance and license-plate reader services are key.
“You’d be amazed at what these guys put on social media,” he said.
One factor consistently stunting homicide investigations in other cities is a lack of witness participation, according to law enforcement officials. For instance, in poor communities with outsized concentrations of killings, people are often reluctant to speak to police out of fear of retaliation from perpetrators or gangs operating in the area.
Elizabeth Robinson, president of CHANGE, a Baton Rouge violence prevention organization, said the key to bolstering clearance rates lies in repairing the trust between police and communities.
“We have to understand the community has to come forward,” she said. “If there’s no witness, or there’s no gun, then you can’t expect the case to get solved.”
Robinson is no stranger to the headaches of plodding investigations. Her son Lewis was shot and killed in 2018, and she said that her communications with investigators were so frustrating that she eventually dropped contact with them entirely. The case remains open.
She said people must not only cooperate when asked to give statements to law enforcement, but also be proactive in gathering information and “keeping an ear to the streets” to help advance investigations.
While she acknowledges the climate of unrest currently embattling law enforcement, she maintains that it is imperative that people trust and cooperate with police if they want to see murder rates drop and clearance rates rise.
McKneely said BRPD usually does not struggle with witness participation in homicide cases. He credited the Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers program, which allows residents to report tips anonymously.
He said the best way to bolster clearance rates is through community participation. If people see a friend or family member going through a conflict that seems to be escalating, they should play an active role by reporting it to the police before it ends in bloodshed.
“We now have documentation of past situations that had occurred that would help us in our investigation,” McKneely said. “It helps us create a sequence of incidents that will help us develop a picture of what led to that incident occurring.”
Gibson echoed Robinson’s sentiments, saying she wishes patrolling officers participated more in the community and got to know residents better so they would trust officers and be more proactive.
Gibson, a nursing home caretaker, compared the mounting caseload for homicide detectives to her work during the pandemic: it’s harder and more strenuous, but it is no excuse to perform the job poorly or let cases fall through the cracks.
She hopes police departments are able to adapt to the rising caseloads so grieving families can get additional closure.
“It hurts your grieving process even more to feel like your child was thrown away,” Gibson said. “I know it’s a job, but my job is a job where I have compassion, and I like doing it. If you have that disconnect and you’re only there to collect a paycheck, you need to get out of there.”
Gibson said that even if her son’s case closes, she won’t get him back. She will not get to see him graduate from high school, play for the NFL or retire her one day.
One of the only things left of him is his phone, filled with pictures and videos of the two together. It now sits idle in an evidence locker somewhere in Baton Rouge police offices.
“That night, I made peace in the back of that car. I had to make peace,” Gibson said. “I’ve known other people that lost kids. I’ve seen how it has torn them, broken them, messed with their marriage, messed with relationships. That night, I just prayed to God that he’d give me peace. If I don’t question too much of the situation and just let go, I get through it.”

Morgan City PD
Morgan City police announced Dec. 29 that K-9 Lady, a part of the Police Department since 2013, fell ill and died while on a vacation trip with her handler, Officer Ryan Aucoin. On its Facebook page, the department said K-9 Lady loved being part of appearances at local schools during Red Ribbon Week. "May you find an abundance of tennis balls in heaven!" the department said in its post.

PATTERSON — The Patterson city government is feeling the pinch from inflation.
So the council took a step Tuesday toward keeping up with the cost of providing water by linking water bills to the Consumer Price Index.
Also Tuesday, the council passed an ordinance allowing a formal agreement with Acadian Ambulance for use of the old police station; lowered the speed limit on a stretch of Plum Street and Martin Luther King near a daycare center; and moved toward reclaiming the use of a piece of land on Shady Grove Drive as part of a street repair plan.
The council introduced an ordinance that would automatically increase water bills for the year based on the rate of inflation as determined according to the All Urban Consumer Price Index on Jan. 1 of that year.
Currently, water bills are increased each year by 2%, which is roughly the level of inflation from the 1990s until 2021.
Now, Mayor Rodney Grogan said, annual inflation rates reported monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are running between 5.2% and 5.9%. The price of chemicals needed to treat water and the transportation costs for bringing them to Patterson have been going up, he said.
“We will be looking at a loss of revenue,” Grogan said.
Numbers from the bureau’s website show how fast inflation took hold in 2021. The CPI rose from 257.971 in January 2020 to 261.552 in January 2021, an increase of about 1.4%. In November 2021, the most recent month listed on the site, the CPI was 277.948, up from 260.229 in November 2020. That’s an increase of 6.8%.
The ordinance would apply to residential customers of Patterson water both inside and outside the city and to commercial customers.
Originally, the ordinance based the annual increase on the difference in the CPI from the previous January to the current January. But the council amended it after Grogan said the relevant number would be the inflation rate in the most recent January, not an average for the previous year.
If the bill follows the normal course, a public hearing on the ordinance and a vote on passage would occur at the Feb. 1 council meeting.
Also Tuesday:
—The council unanimously passed an ordinance allowing Grogan to enter a cooperative endeavor agreement with Acadian Ambulance for use of the old police building. The agreement includes a lease for two years.
Acadian already uses the old police station. And the private ambulance company has agreed to pay for repairs to the building’s roof, Grogan said.
But for insurance purposes, the agreement should be formalized with a fixed term, Grogan said.
The city government has plans beyond the two years to demolish the old water plant to make way for a new fire station, and to tear down the police building to improve access. But no funding is yet in place to pay for the new fire station.
—The council changed the speed limit from 25 mph to 15 mph on Plum and Martin Luther King to Hickory Street between 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The request came from Michael Ford of the Barney and Baby Bop Daycare, who said vehicles speed past the business in the afternoons.
—The council heard that plans are underway for street improvements in 2022. According to information provided to the council by Melanie Caillouet of Providence Engineering, a meeting Dec. 20 with Patterson officials resulted in plans to put asphalt on Shady Grove, Taft and Bridge streets.
Also, Eighth, Ninth, Jake, St. Mary, St. Lucy, Tall Timbers and Fernwood would be improved by pulverizing and compacting with a proper grade, with a layer of fabric and aggregate on top. “They would not be asphalted, but they would no longer have potholes and the City would have an easier job maintaining them in the future,” according to Caillouet’s presentation to the council.
A cost estimate is still in the draft stage, she said.
One potential problem emerged for the Shady Grove work. The drive is supposed to have a cul-de-sac at the end, which would allow school buses to turn around there. But a roadside property owner has a fence within the servitude for the cul-de-sac. A letter will be sent as a step toward resolving the problem.
A servitude is an agreement that allows one party to use the property of another party for a specific purpose.
—Grogan offered public thanks to churches for donations of food, including food that goes to clients of the Council on Aging.
He also thanked Police Chief Garrett Grogan for the department’s response to fireworks complaints over the holidays and to Planning and Zoning Director William Gil for the $21,000 in building permit fees received by the city government in 2021.
—Grogan also reminded residents that two charter amendments and a council election will be on the March 26 ballot.
If passed, one charter amendment would allow the police chief to receive a salary increase during the same four-year term in which the council approves the raise. Currently, the charter prohibits salary changes for the chief during the term in which the council makes the change. Salary cuts would continue to take effect only after the term in which they’re passed.
The other amendment would require the mayor to have a high school diploma or its equivalent.
Also March 26, voters will pick a council member to fill the unexpired portion of Sandra K. Turner’s term. Turner resigned in July because she was moving out of the city limits. Her daughter, Tina Johnson, has filled the seat since July on an interim basis.
Qualifying for the council election will be Jan. 26-28. Early voting will be March 12-19, except for Sunday, March 13. The deadline for in-person or mail voter registration in time for the March 26 election is Feb. 23.

This story has been edited to fix a type and add information about the new speed limit.