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T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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T u e s d ay, s e p T e m b e r 9, 2025
CELEBRATING UL ATHLETICS
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Lawyer: Client a pawn in bribery scheme Lafayette official’s trial starts in federal court
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
PROVIDED PHOTOS By BENJAMIN R. MASSEy/RAGIN’ CAJUNS ATHLETICS
People gather Friday for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Hall of Fame event at McElligot Club in Lafayette.
Six new members were inducted into the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday. Inductees included Brett Baer, football; Kevin Brooks, men’s basketball; Corey Coles, baseball; Richard Ainley, golf; Haley Hayden, softball; and Ed Dugas, administration. It was one of the first events to be held in the McElligott Club of the new Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
The lawyer for an assistant district attorney in Lafayette charged in a bribery scheme said in federal court Monday his client was the pawn of two men who accepted plea deals from federal prosecutors in exchange for their testimony against him. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Loew and Todd Clemons, of Lake Charles, the attorney for Assistant Haynes District Attorney Gary Haynes, gave their opening statements Monday afternoon to a jury of six men and six women. District Attorney Don Landry of the 15th Judicial District Court was the first witness in the trial, called by the prosecution. Clemons is expected to cross-examine Landry when the trial resumes Tuesday morning in Lafayette. Clemons, in his opening statement, said evidence will show Haynes never received money or
ä See TRIAL, page 3A
ABOVE: Haley Hayden speaks during the UL Athletics Hall of Fame induction. LEFT: Brett Baer, right, stands with Bryan Maggard, vice president for intercollegiate athletics, during the event.
Outreach urged for carbon capture Opposition builds to growing industry
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
Bryan had never attempted to leave through one before,” the detective wrote of Bryan’s escape route. “Vasquez further disclosed two prior incidents of Bryan running away.” On Aug. 1, at their previous residence, the boy was “found by the police, completely naked and drinking water from a drainage ditch,” the affidavit states. The second escape happened on Aug. 4, his birthday, and wasn’t reported to police.
A top state official is urging carbon capture executives to make greater efforts at outreach to local leaders and the public, as increasing opposition threatens to derail an industry that Louisiana has sought to embrace. Growing opposition in rural Louisiana has included attempts to pass parishwide moratoriums on carbon capture and demands that residents or local governments be allowed to vote on whether to permit the technology, among other grassroots initiatives. Those are “a direct result” of a lack of communication from companies, said Dustin Davidson, the new secretary of Louisiana’s energy and natural resources agency. “I can tell you that a lot of the moratoriums we’re seeing from different parishes is a direct result
ä See BOY, page 3A
ä See OUTREACH, page 3A
Boy lacked proper supervision, police say
of Hilda Vasquez, with his grisly confirmed that she plans to repre- home, was missing again. N.O. mother arrested death “Vasquez stated she had not a tragic consequence. sent Vasquez but declined to comtaken preventative measures The boy had left his home in ment, saying it was premature. after son found dead New Orleans East in only a diaper In a police affidavit supporting to secure the window because
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
The mother of a nonverbal New Orleans boy who was found dead in a lagoon last month after a desperate 12-day search appeared in a New Orleans courtroom on Monday to face allegations of deadly negligence, as court records revealed new details behind her weekend arrest. According to police, the short life of 12-year-old Bryan Vasquez was defined by failed parenting and physical abuse at the hands
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that he would soon shed, sparking a search that ended Aug. 26 when his body turned up amid alligators. Vasquez, 34, appeared in shackles and jail scrubs in Magistrate Court, saying through a Spanish language interpreter that she would hire a private attorney to face felony counts of seconddegree cruelty to juveniles and negligent homicide. Both carry a maximum 10-year sentence upon conviction. She has not yet been charged. The attorney, Cinthia Padilla,
Vasquez’s arrest, New Orleans Police Department Officer Mario Bravo, of the Special Victims Division, wrote that Vasquez had left the boy and his 11-year-old sister home alone the morning of his Aug. 14 disappearance, as she took a younger child to school. She’d “elected not to bring Bryan or his sister to school,” having yet to provide a new address for a school bus to reach them, Bravo wrote. Vasquez called home about 10 a.m., and her daughter said the boy, who had repeatedly left
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