The owners of a New Orleans nursing home have been charged with homicide after 34 of their patients died in the wake of Katrina. The reason for the charges: the owners of the home failed to evacuate their elderly patients as ordered to do by local authorities.
The accused couple is Salvador and Mable Mangano. The Manganos own St. Rita's nursing home in town of Chalmette, Louisiana. They have been charged with negligent homicide. Each of them have been released on $50,000 bond.
'The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,' said Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. 'They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.'
Their attorney, Jim Cobb, said his clients were innocent. Cobb insists the Manganos had waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials of St. Bernard Parish. None was ever issued according to Cobb.
Cobb added that the Manganos were forced to make a difficult decision as Katrina approached: risk the health of the patients — many of them frail and on feeding tubes — in an evacuation, or keep them comfortable at the home through the storm.
As of now, the official death toll in Louisiana stands at 423. That number is expected to rise drastically as more bodies are found in the gradually receding waters in and around New Orleans.
