July 5, 2008
No Way Out
A Couple Faces Life In Prison After 35 People Die In Their Care
-
Play CBS Video Video St. Rita's Nursing Home Today Owners Mabel and Sal Mangano revisit what's left of St. Rita's Nursing Home, where 35 of their residents died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
-
Sal and Mabel Mangano (CBS)
The state of Louisiana asked him to investigate the failure of the levees around New Orleans during Katrina. His well-publicized conclusion? They weren’t built right, especially the one protecting St. Bernard, and failed because they were built out of porous materials, like dirt and sand. "The waves will just chew it up," Van Heerden says.
Battered by 18-foot seas, sections of the levee washed away. There was nothing to keep the water from filling up the parish and turning St. Rita's into a death trap.
"So who, then, do you think is responsible for the 35 deaths at St. Rita’s?" Dow asks.
"In my opinion, the loss of life, the damage, all the destruction rests solely on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," Van Heerden argues.
Attorney General Charles Foti seemed to agree by filing a lawsuit against the federal government, and asking for billions of dollars in damages for residents of greater New Orleans.
"He filed a petition under oath in which he alleges that the Corps of Engineers recklessly, willfully, wantonly, through gross negligence allowed these levees to collapse. That's the definition of negligent homicide," Cobb comments.
Instead, that same attorney general charged the Manganos with negligent homicide, blaming them alone for the 35 deaths at St. Rita's.
"Well, how can it be the Manganos fault and the federal government's fault?" Dow asks.
"Well, it can't, can it?" Cobb replies.
Still, on the eve of the trial, Cobb knows the Manganos are in for the fight of their lives. If convicted, he says his clients would face more than 200 years each.
With life in prison a real possibility, Sal and Mabel Mangano found it hard to make a new start. Their home, their business, and their reputation were all destroyed. They were shunned by people they once called friends; finding it impossible to remain in St. Bernard Parish, the Manganos moved to Baton Rouge.
"Can you describe what the past two years have been like for both of you?" Dow asks.
"It's been very, very difficult. It's been hard on my children, my grandchildren, on the people that I love," Mabel says. "We're recognized everywhere we go. So, I feel like we have a stigma that's gonna follow us for a long time."
Prosecutors say the Manganos brought these problems upon themselves. "Thirty-five people died because they were at St. Rita's on the morning of August the 29th," Cullen says. "There's some cases that just have to be tried. There's some cases that you feel really strongly about."
Because feelings about the case are so strong, the trial was moved to rural St. Francisville, more than 100 miles from St. Bernard Parish. And in August 2007, nearly two years after Katrina, the trial begins.
There is enormous media attention, even though cameras are not allowed in the courtroom. Members of victims' families are a daily presence at the trial.
"Every family had a story about their loved one. About the joy that they brought them even though they were in a nursing home. It was a tragedy for these families beyond anything that I could imagine at the time," prosecutor Knight says.
As the trial gets underway, several family members, including fireman Steve Galladoro, testify in court that the Manganos told them they would evacuate the nursing home before Katrina struck.
But Mabel says she told people that they were sheltering-in-place. "And by the way, that's the preferable thing to do," she says.
The defense strategy is to try to make the trial about government failures that led to the flooding of St. Bernard Parish. To make that point as dramatically as possible, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is forced to testify. Defense attorneys grill Blanco about testimony she gave to Congress in December 2005.
"We in Louisiana know hurricanes, and hurricanes know us. We would not be here today if the levees had not failed," she had said during her Congressional hearing.
"I said, 'Governor, did you say that?' 'Yes, I did.' 'Was it true then?' 'Yes.' 'Is it true now?' 'Yes.' And I pointed to Sal and Mabel and I said, 'And they wouldn't be here either if the levees had not failed, would they?' 'Objection!' But the point was made," Cobb says.
"They just took the approach of 'We're not going to talk about the Manganos. We're going to talk about everybody else,'" Cullen comments.
Produced by Paul Ryan and Sara Rodriguez
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Recent Segments
Scroll Left Scroll Right
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 80 CommentsWhen visiting New Orleans in May of 2005 we were told that if a storm took a direct hit on New Orleans the levees would break because Nutra Rats had burrowed into the levees weakening them to a state of disrepair and the Government knew of the problem at that time.So if you want to point fingers and lay blame the Army Corps of Eng. may be a beginning. Katrina was the straw that broke the weakened levees.
Repsonse:
This is well documented on the discovery channel! and scientific magazines. You want to blame someone blame Congress the Levee problem has been known about for years and years; they failed to appropriate the money to fix the levees. The Corps was moved from the Levee mission a couple of years before Katrina in a series of downsizing the government (cause taxes are bad.) So while the rest of the country might be able to put shoe on their children''s feet; New Orleans became a death trap for many because Congress failed to put money into our infrastructure. It is well documented that Corp wanted to fix the levees but Congress and other leadship bodies failed the people of this country and everyone is pointing fingers in the wrong directions; this one really belongs to the executive bodies of leadership.
That being said, the Mangano''s should not bear the only blame. They suffer their own hell thinking about those they lost. Unless what they did was illegal, then they cannot be soley to blame.
Furthermore, I am quite perplexed why the families of the victims didn''t come and pick up their loved ones? Maybe they too didn''t think the unthinkable was to happen. Which proves the point that no one thought such horrific tragedy was to happen. Everyone wants to blame someone when something like this happens.
What would anyone do when faced with a sudden rush of 10 feet of water? The fact is they were told they could stay & there was NO mandatory evacuation given. They couldn''t have predicted this outcome.
Why didn''t the families that were fleeing go down to the Nursing Home to get their loved one out and take them with them? This point was NOT presented in the show and I do think it should''ve been.
If however, the Manganos told them not to come down and take their loved ones, then they would be complicit for giving these families false hope and comfort. But again, this was not presented in the show.
Lastly, this is a tragic story with unbelievable loss and pain for many Americans. My heartfelt condolences to all of you!
It''s important that we as service providers of elderly/handicapped understand our responsibility provide the best services.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 80 Comments