RSS Feed

(Editor’s note: The charges listed here and the narratives that go with them are provided by the police agencies that made the arrests. Guilt or innocence has not been determined in court.)

A call about a welfare concern in Berwick led to the arrest of three people on charges that include marijuana possession, resisting arrest and possession of a weapon by a felon.

Berwick police also reported the arrest of a 14-year-old girl accused of choking her mother and of a 39-year-old accused of sexual battery.

Berwick
Chief JP Henry reported these arrests:

--Blaze Ezell, 31, Berwick, was arrested at 10:39 a.m. Monday on charges of violation of protective orders, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

--Devin Derouselle, 32, Henderson, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Monday on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm in a school zone and possession of marijuana.

--Jaydon Crouch, 18, Berwick, was arrested at 10:39 a.m. Monday on charges of illegal possession of stolen things, resisting an officer by force or violence, and resisting an officer.

On Monday morning, officers with the Berwick Police Department responded to a welfare concern at a residence on Second Street regarding a possible overdose and a disturbance involving a firearm. Due to the residence being in close proximity to a local school, additional units responded to ensure the safety of the area.

Multiple individuals were detained during the initial investigation. After further inquiry, a search warrant for the residence was obtained. Upon executing the warrant, officers located a handgun, marijuana, and various items of drug paraphernalia.

At no time was there any threat to the school, nor was there any disruption to normal classroom activities.

The three individuals involved were booked into the Berwick Jail and later transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center, where they are being housed pending a bond hearing.

--Dex Clements, 39, Berwick, was arrested at 4:55 p.m. Nov. 25 on a Berwick warrant alleging sexual battery.

--A juvenile female, 14, was arrested Nov. 26 on a charge of domestic abuse by strangulation.

About 1:40 p.m. Nov. 26, officers with the Berwick Police Department responded to a residence on Trevino Street regarding a reported disturbance involving a juvenile female.

During the investigation, officers learned that the juvenile was involved in a physical altercation in which she strangled her mother. The juvenile was taken into custody and booked.

She was later transported to a juvenile detention center, where she remains pending juvenile court proceedings.

--Marcus Meek, 36, Conroe, Texas, was arrested at 7:29 p.m. Nov. 27 on charges of driving while intoxicated and reckless operation of a motor vehicle.

--Hunter St. Germain, 25, Berwick, was arrested at 1:23 p.m. Nov. 27 on a charge of simple assault.

Morgan City

Chief Chad M. Adams reported that the Morgan City Police Department responded to 42 calls for service over the last 24-hour reporting period and made this arrest:

--Tra Andrew Acosta, 29, Railroad Avenue, Morgan City, was arrested at 11:28 p.m. Monday on two counts of failure to appear for arraignment (6th Ward Morgan City Court).

Lt. Colonel Dale H. Hayes, Sr. was born on October 10, 1930, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He died on November 27, 2025, at the age of 95, surrounded by his family. He was preceded in death by his mother, Helen Hayes, his father, Jesse B. Hayes Sr., his brother, Jesse B. Hayes, Jr., his wife Bernadine Hayes, his daughter, Karen Hayes Ordogne and survived by his sons, Thomas P. Hayes and Dale H. Hayes Jr. (Sharon), his eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Dale grew up in Morgan City and attended Sacred Heart Academy. He graduated from Holy Cross High School in New Orleans. After one year at college, he enlisted in Company “B” of the National Guard and later enlisted as a Private in the U.S. Army. After attending Officer Candidate School, he served for 24 years and rose to the grade of Lt. Colonel. He served overseas for nine years, fought in two wars, including Korea and Vietnam. He held high level Executive and Command positions in Europe, the Far East, Vietnam and the Pentagon.
Among his many decorations were the Purple Heart, Three Bronze Stars for Valor and eighteen other awards and decorations.
Dale retired from the U.S. Army to attend Law School at 42 years of age. He had a B.A. Degree from Nicholls University and a Juris Doctor Degree from Loyola University. He was a practicing attorney in Morgan City for 43 years, serving as City Attorney for 25 years.
Dale lived a big life and he lived it loudly. The hardships of living during the Great Depression and the ravages of war forged a strong, confident resiliency in his character. He was truly fearless. He was always happy and unburdened by life’s slings and arrows. To see Dale and Bernadine dance the jitterbug was a real treat. Dale was an avid runner, pounding the pavement of Morgan City for 30 years. He was often seen running shirtless at noon in August unaffected by the tortuous heat. Nobody could grill steak like Dale Sr. Sunday dinner at Mom and Dad’s house was a great family tradition.
Dale was a lifelong Catholic and attended Holy Mass faithfully. He served as reader and was a member of the school board of Central Catholic High School.
The family would like to thank the staff at Maison Jardin Assisted Living and Ochsner Hospital Hospice Health unit and all those who cared for Dale. He was the life of the party at M.J.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, December 5, 2025, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Father Sal Istre officiating. A rosary will be recited at 9:30 a.m. After Mass, Dale will be laid to rest in the Morgan City Cemetery Mausoleum, where military honors will be rendered by Ft. Polk and the Patterson Memorial VFW, Post 12182. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that masses be offered for the Repose of his soul.

PATTERSON — The Ward 5 and 8 Joint Sewage Commission has a new leader, and he’s no stranger to wastewater treatment.
Commissioners voted Monday to promote from within and hire Calvin Sanders, who for the past two years has worked as the protégé of their longtime Superintendent Mickey Carmouche. The long-time superintendent retired after 25 years of service Nov. 30.
A rate hike approved by the commission became a source of controversy in the fall, leading to pointed questions from the Berwick and Patterson council about the need for the increase. Now the parties seem to have agreed that they’ll work together to find funding for upgrades to an aging system.
Sanders has worked for a total of 12 years as a wastewater treatment operator for the city of Patterson, and the city of Franklin.
A native of Verdunville and a resident of Franklin, Sanders also holds an associate degree in electronics from Young Memorial.
He said his main objective as the new superintendent is to be pro-active when it comes to the maintenance aspect of the job.
“To actually run a facility where I can serve the general public and the whole region that will ensure the safety of what we put out into the environment, is my main objective,” he said.
“Safety is crucial for environmental concerns,” he said, noting that the joint sewage commission facility, which is located on Cotten Road in Patterson, treats, contains and releases sewage.
Sanders said his challenge however, is equipment. “We’re using old stuff that we continually try to make better.”
The commission is an intergovernmental entity created 41 years ago by the St. Mary Parish Council, the city of Patterson and the town of Berwick.
Its mission is to provide sewer services and to operate a regional sewage treatment facility which collects sewage from Calumet to Berwick.
In September, Commissioner Chris Cooper, then chairman, sent out letters to the parish municipalities announcing a rate hike for the entity beginning Oct. 1, stating they needed the money or else they would go broke.
Commission Chairman Michael Stewart said Monday, “I guess we kind of opened a can of worms when we asked for a rate hike a few months ago. Now all of the entities are watching what we’re doing.”
On Monday, Karen Sehon, the commission secretary-treasurer, presented a preliminary 2025-26 profit and loss budget for commissioners to review, which showed $1.3 million in revenues but $2 million in expenditures, resulting in a $664,523 deficit.
Sehon said the budget was based on the 2024-25 fiscal year and did not include any monies received from the rate hike, which she expects will be close to $360,000.
Commissioner Brandon Monceaux said that amount will only cover half of the deficit, and suggests the commission begin looking at expenditures, one of which is electricity, which last year cost the commission $286,000.
Cooper suggested that the commission look into obtaining more solar powered buoys because they take less energy to break down fecal matter and are more environmentally sound and safe.
Commissioner Tim Kyle said that up until recently, the joint commission was the only sewage plant in the United States to use a solar-powered buoy system that improves water quality without the need for chemicals or mechanical agitation. It uses a small amount of energy, less than watt, to modify the physical properties of water on a large scale.
Kyle explained that all of the joint commission’s system drains into one pond at the end of Cotten Road. He said that for years, it has been their practice to use mechanical aerators to break down pollutants.
But repair and upkeep of the aerators is costly, Sanders said, and to replace just one is $70,000.
Kyle said the mechanical aerators act like a giant blender to rotate the water in order to break down the solids, where the buoy transfers oxygen from the air, supporting aerobic bacteria to break down the solids.
“We only have one buoy, but one or two more would certainly help us in reducing the utility bill,” he said.
Glen Duncan, client support director with Providence Engineering, the commission’s consulting firm, said the commission has been using the buoy on a pilot basis from EM Fluids of Ontario, Canada, but now, the company wants to charge the commission a $5,000 monthly usage fee.
Cooper said that cost is minimal compared to the money the commission would save against utilities.
In other business, Stewart introduced newly hired Johnny Olivier, who will work with Sanders in operation of the sewage treatment plant.

=Louisiana officials plan to reopen a youth prison in April that was shuttered over a decade ago when it was declared inappropriate for young people. 
The state Office of Juvenile Justice plans to move 36 incarcerated youth to the old Jetson Center for Youth in Baker after some minor upgrades to buildings on the site. The interim facility is expected to help with overcrowding in the state’s youth prison system, agency undersecretary Jason Starnes said. 
“We desperately need some relief with our bed capacity issues,” Starnes told state lawmakers at a budget hearing last week.
The long-term plan for the Jetson site is to replace the existing facility with a brand new youth prison complex that will house up to 72 children and teenagers. It is expected to cost close to $70 million and would open during the 2027-28 state budget year.
In the meantime, the state will renovate existing buildings at Jetson to accommodate a dormitory, cafeteria, laundry facility and classrooms for the 36 youth who will arrive in the spring.
The money to make those buildings inhabitable will come from the budget for the new Jetson construction, said Matt Baker, director of the state Office of Planning and Facility Control, at the budget hearing. He did not say how much will be spent on the rehabilitation. 
“We’re going to do some cleaning up,” Baker said. “But essentially, we are doing as efficient of a renovation as possible so we can retain as much budget as we can for the new facility.”
Once the new building is opened, the state plans to tear down all the existing facilities on Jetson’s campus, Baker said.
When Jetson was closed in 2014, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s staff described it as old and obsolete. Some Jetson buildings first opened in 1948 and were not conducive to the therapeutic setting the juvenile justice system was trying to embrace at the time.
State officials also justified Jetson’s closure by saying it was difficult to secure because its campus is large and buildings are spread out over several acres. 
More recently, Louisiana used Jetson as its temporary women’s prison for nine years. The state hastily moved its incarcerated women to Jetson in 2016 after the women’s prison in St. Gabriel flooded and became unlivable. They were moved out of Jetson earlier this year when a new women’s prison opened at another St. Gabriel site. Advocates for incarcerated women complained about the condition of Jetson while the women were housed there, but juvenile justice officials say they intend to use a different building. 
Still, Starnes admitted most of the facilities at Jetson are in bad physical shape. 
“A lot of the facilities are very aged. [The buildings] are in very poor condition,” he said last week.
Legislators are also concerned about the impact to the surrounding communities. When Jetson was open, breakouts happened frequently and surrounding neighbors experienced waves of crime from the facility. At the time, the facility housed hundreds of incarcerated youth. State Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, said she is concerned about new residential developments under construction near the Jetson site. 
 “We have to be good neighbors to the people we are going to be next to,” Barrow said.