"Case Closed!"
(8/07 /2007) - Excerpt From Times-Picayune
by: Gwen Filosa
The investigation into nine deaths at the hospital in the harrowing days after Katrina spanned nearly two years. It ended July 24, when the grand jury voted not to indict Pou on murder charges presented by New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office.
"The investigation is over," said Assistant Attorney General Julie Cullen,who sat in during the grand jury proceedings over the Memorial case, which were directed by Jordan's office, not Attorney General Charles Foti's. "No one is a target at this time. This case is closed."
"No indictment was returned," Judge Calvin Johnson told prosecutors as 20 attorneys gathered at his courtroom to wrangle over the matter. "What you presented to the grand jury room stayed in the grand jury room. On one level, I'll suggest no one should know. In a way, I don't want to know."
Attorneys for unnamed nurses, doctors and other medical workers at Memorial, along with Tenet and LifeCare, want nothing more made public after the sensational criminal probe, which outraged the local medical community.
Robert Jenkins, an attorney for "John Doe No. 14," a medical worker who rode out the storm at Memorial, doesn't want his client's name made public. He was joined Monday by several other lawyers seeking the same protection.
Johnson has to untangle what is public record and what invades people's privacy, said attorneys who want the Memorial matter to fade away.
"He is kind of limited at this point," said Edward Castaing Jr., an attorney for Budo. "Everything is related to something else, and there are so many privacy rights. Good people came forward and gave interviews who are not part of any allegations."
"Our investigation into Memorial Medical Center is over," Assistant District Attorney Michael Morales said. "At this point my files are all boxed up."
