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S at u r d ay, M ay 24, 2025
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Church bankruptcy moves to next step
Archbishop attends hearing, optimistic for resolution
More arrested in wake of escape Five inmates still remain on the lam BY JOHN SIMERMAN and MISSY WILKINSON Staff writers
It also points to the challenges the church faces as it tries to get the proposed deal — which would pay abuse survivors nearly $180 million over five years and entitle them to additional money from insurers and property sales — over the finish line. Though the tentative deal was negotiated by the court-appointed committee that represents the 600 or so abuse survivors in the case, it is opposed by a vocal group of plaintiffs lawyers, who represent individual survivors, perhaps as many as half of the total.
Sterling Williams walked into pod 1-D of the Orleans Parish jail last Friday to fix a toilet, his attorney said. He was armed with a work order to repair it in a cell on the second tier, but that commode was fine, Michael Kennedy said. Another one, in Cell 6, a handicapped unit on the floor below, was a different story, stuffed with towels, socks and underwear. Kennedy said Williams told him Friday that a pair of Orleans Parish sheriff’s employees witnessed the resulting flooding, and one of them told him the cell with the clog “should not be in use.” Kennedy said that Williams turned off the water Thursday afternoon from a pipe chase behind the row of cells, and he kept it off when he left the jail pod to prevent further vandalism. Williams’ shift ended at 6 p.m. Seven hours later, inmates jostled a door open and ripped out a toilet-sink combo, then squeezed and leapt their way to freedom outside the lockup in one of the largest and most brazen jailbreaks in city history. As a manhunt reached its eighth day Friday, half of those escapees remained on the lam, even as the number of their alleged accomplices rose. Meanwhile, court records on Friday revealed more details on the help they received on the outside, while authorities revealed a previous escape attempt by three inmates from the same jail pod on May 1. Sheriff Susan Hutson,
ä See CHURCH, page 7A
ä See ESCAPE, page 6A
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, middle, walks with Suzie Zeringue, in-house counsel for the archdiocese, and the Rev. Patrick Carr, vicar general, toward the Hale Boggs Federal Building in New Orleans on Friday.
Some plaintiffs lawyers oppose settlement BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL
Staff writer
Two days after a tentative settlement with survivors of clergy sex abuse was announced in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy, Archbishop Gregory Aymond made a rare court appearance Friday at a hearing over whether to extend the appointment of a key mediator in the case who helped broker the recent agreement.
Aymond did not speak during the 90-minute proceeding in federal bankruptcy court in New Orleans, though he said after the hearing that he attended because he “wanted to be a part of the process” and is praying for abuse survivors and their healing. He is optimistic for a resolution in the long-running case, perhaps as soon as the end of the year, he said. The archbishop’s presence at what would typically be a routine matter underscores the critical juncture in the court battle that has consumed the local Roman Catholic Church for the past five years.
Fans raving about sets of ‘Sinners’
Students could face repeating third grade
to traditional public New La. law affects applies schools. If their scores don’t improve and they pupils far behind adequately don’t qualify for an exempin reading tion, such as being diagnosed
Production designer created film’s visuals with Louisiana artists
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
BY JENNA ROSS Staff writer
Early in the film “Sinners,” a buoyant, bloody box-office hit filmed in Louisiana and set in the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s, the audience encounters a small house, shaded by oak trees, its front boards stained blue. That blue, an earthy turquoise, shows up again and again through the movie, a protective force in a world populated by vampires. The thoroughly Southern “Sinners,” released in April, has dominated theaters across the country, earning praise for its director Ryan Coogler and its star Michael B. Jordan. But its intricate sets, and the Louisiana artists who cre-
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PROVIDED PHOTO By TIM DAVIS
Miles Caton portrays Sammie in a scene from ‘Sinners.’ The church, which art director Tim Davis helped create, has several hidden symbols.
ated them, are becoming stars in art director and lifelong New Ortheir own right, with fans analyz- leanian. Some of the film’s artists, ining their every detail, down to the hues of the painted boards. cluding New Orleans-based Oscar “Every streak of rust was purä See SINNERS, page 7A poseful,” said Timotheus Davis,
Nearly a quarter of Louisiana third graders are ending the school year far behind in reading, the state Education Department said Thursday. Under a new state law, some of those students will have to repeat third grade. About 23% of third graders scored “well below” target reading levels on a recent endof-year assessment, the state said, indicating they face a high risk of reading difficulties. Nearly 12,000 third graders could fall in that category, based on enrollment numbers. Those students can retake the literacy test two times under the 2023 law, which took effect this school year and only
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with dyslexia, then they cannot move to fourth grade. State officials said Thursday that they expect the share of third graders who are held back to be much smaller than the 23% who scored at the lowest level on the reading test, called DIBELS. The law also exempts students with certain disabilities and those learning to speak English, as well as students who scored at the “mastery” level or above on this year’s state English test. Third graders at risk of being held back can retake the DIBELS test once before this school year ends and again after optional summer school. “You will naturally see some of the students, with that
ä See STUDENTS, page 6A
12TH yEAR, NO. 285