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2 days ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office remains under intense scrutiny as the Louisiana Legislative Auditor investigates everything from finances to internal procedures. “From day one, the Sheriff said we have nothing to hide, we want full transparency here,” said Louisiana Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack. “Everything we’ve asked for, they’ve given us.”The auditor’s office has assigned a special task force in New Orleans to review OPSO.
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3 days ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson painted a bleak picture of the city’s jail operations Tuesday (June 3) if the city does not allocate more money for facility repairs and upgrades. Hutson suggested ongoing plumbing problems could force a shutdown of the parish jail, from which 10 inmates escaped on May 16. The claim was met with derision by members of the New Orleans City Council at a meeting that occasionally turned contentious.
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4 days ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The Orleans Parish jailbreak shifts public focus squarely on Sheriff Susan Hutson and conditions at the jail ahead of the October election. Most New Orleans voters do not approve of the job Hutson is doing, according to a recently released poll by JMC Analytics and Polling. The survey says a combined 63% of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Hutson. “Even before the current poll, she was already polling very badly.
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1 week ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The New Orleans Police Department is holding firm on its April decision to suspend real-time facial recognition alerts from Project NOLA cameras, even as the City Council weighs updates to surveillance policy. Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project NOLA, released emails he sent to NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick urging her to review the department’s facial recognition policy.
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1 week ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (WVUE) - Police in Huntsville, Texas, have released body and dash camera video showing the high-speed pursuit and arrest of two of the ten men who escaped the Orleans Justice Center earlier this month. The arrest of Leo Tate, 31, and Jermaine Donald, 42, took place Monday (May 26) on Memorial Day, as the multi-agency manhunt now stretches into its second week.
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1 week ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The manhunt continues into a second week for five inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center. The escapees still on the run include:Derrick Groves, 27 — convicted of two Mardi Gras Day murders in 2018. Antoine Massey, 32 — accused of domestic violence, kidnapping, and rape. Jermaine Donald, 42 — facing a second-degree murder charge. Lenton VanBuren, 26 — charged with murder and parole violations.
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2 weeks ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Nearly a week after 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center, the New Orleans Police Department Crime Lab is now processing evidence at the scene. District Attorney Jason Williams said time is critical to ensure no evidence is destroyed. On Thursday afternoon, NOPD Crime Lab technicians were seen carrying evidence bags out of the jail. Williams said the investigation focused on the pod and the route the 10 violent offenders used to escape.
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2 weeks ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Facial recognition is credited with spotting two escaped inmates in the French Quarter last Friday morning (May 16). Two hours after the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office sent a list of escaped inmates and their mugshots to area law enforcement, Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project NOLA, began entering data and scanning mug shots. “The moment we hit enter, it’s ‘Bang, bang, bang,’ and we start getting hits,” Lagarde said.
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3 weeks ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A New Orleans woman facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of a Kansas City reporter will serve 25 years in prison after Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stepped in to challenge a previously suspended sentence. Murrill announced Thursday (May 15) that Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Nandi F. Campbell sided with her office, declaring Danette Colbert a quadruple habitual offender based on her criminal record of fraud convictions.
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3 weeks ago | 
fox8live.com | Chris Welty
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick says the 9-year-old girl shot in the head during a shootout in Algiers remains on life support, and her family is facing difficult decisions. “It’s one thing y’all shoot at each other, but you take a child and I’m done with it,” Kirkpatrick said Thursday. The shooting happened Monday afternoon near the intersection of Elizardi Boulevard and Lawrence Street on Monday (May 12).
