In the Teche Area, a grim reminder of nature’s wrath came in the form of two hurricanes. A spate of spring murders and burglaries also plagued the area, and a new sheriff took over.
With 2008 nearly in the rearview mirror, The Daily Iberian takes a look back at its picks for the top 10 stories of 2008. They range from disastrous to redemptive, from shocking to anticlimactic.
 9/01/08 A tree blocks a road in Little Woods subdivision Sept. 1 following Hurricane Gustav. Gustav and Hurricane Ike rank as the top story in the Teche Area. Lee Ball/The Daily Iberian Advertisement
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It was a dark and stormy September, with two hurricanes hitting the Teche Area in quick succession.
Hurricane Gustav hit the Teche area with winds of 90-100 mph on Sept. 1, bowing down trees, knocking out power to the majority of the area and flooding streets. Its winds peeled back roofs and signs, knocked down a wall of New Iberia’s historic Steamboat Warehouse and damaged property.
New Iberia’s Spencer Loop Area, near the Armenco Canal, flooded particularly badly in the rains following Gustav, giving added impetus to previously commissioned studies of the canal and inspiring a cleaning of the drains, which residents said were clogged.
Projected at one point to be a Category 3 storm, Gustav prompted what Iberia Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Jim Anderson estimated was 50 to 55 percent of the parish to evacuate, with comparable numbers elsewhere. Many, however, felt the area was spared, compared to what was forecasted; despite the damage it did wreak, Gustav weakened in power, eventually hitting the area as a strong Category 1 to low Category 2.
Coming a mere two weeks on the heels of Gustav, Hurricane Ike did not spare residents of the low-lying parts of Iberia, Vermilion and St. Mary parishes, such as Delcambre, Erath, Lydia, Bayou Jack and Cypremort Point.
Residents of those areas had all-too-fresh memories of 2005’s Hurricane Rita. In Delcambre and Erath, Ike’s effects were similar, and its storm surge flooded the homes of many that had already rebuilt once. In St. Mary Parish, where levee failures meant more than 1,000 homes flooded, compared to 400 during Rita, Ike was worse.
2. Rash of homicides plagues Iberia in 2008
After just one recorded homicide in all of Iberia in 2007, eight murders befell the parish in 2008, the highest total in the past five years. Five of those came over a five-week spate in May, though officials found little reason to believe they were related.
“This is in epidemic form,” Iberia Parish Coroner Dr. James Falterman said in May. “It’s unbelievable that in this small, rural Louisiana parish that we would have this type of behavior, but it’s here.”
The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged suspects in all but one of the homicides, that of Kern Gaudet, 42, who was shot several times May 27 outside his grandmother’s home in the 300 block of Ward Street. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Wendell Raborn said investigators are now gathering evidence against a suspect in the case.
Of the eight slayings, three were stabbings and five were shootings. Two homicides appeared to be domestic disputes, two were linked to fighting, two occurred during a robbery and one appeared to be drug-related.
Before it’s said and done, another death could be added to the tally.
The Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate as a homicide the strangulation death of Judy Landry, 61, who was found dead in her home July 1. Investigators earlier this month named Landry’s husband, Edmond, as a person of interest in the case due to inconsistencies in his testimony.
3. There’s a new sheriff in town
After 12 years of Sid Hebert, a new sheriff took office in Iberia Parish. Sheriff Louis Ackal took office July 1 and started by replacing all of the deputies’ uniforms, vehicles and bullet-proof vests, though he had to borrow several million dollars to do so.
Ackal generated headlines consistently during his first six months on the job. Upon inheriting a jail he called “disgusting,” he invited Acadiana news media to take a tour of the Iberia Parish Correctional Center and vowed to change drastically the deteriorating conditions.
In calling for a “forensic” audit of the Sheriff’s Office, Ackal fulfilled a legal obligation but also called attention to what he called poor financial decisions on the part of Hebert and his administration. The results proved less damning than Ackal said he expected, but at least one possible unconstitutional finding remains a question mark.
Looking back on his first months on the job, Ackal said he is pleased with the progress he’s observed but recognizes the daunting task that lies ahead of him the next three years in diminishing the crime rate in Iberia Parish. “This is not a metro area,” Ackal said. “People should not be afraid to come out of their houses. These are not promises, they’re commitments.”
4. Police officers caught in the line of fire
Not even Iberia Parish law enforcment was spared the violence of 2008. A Sheriff’s Office deputy and a Jeanerete Police officer were shot and severely wounded on duty.
In Loreauville, a brazen burglary attempt ended in a deputy getting grazed by a shotgun blast and a woman losing her house to arson.
James Herbert Bowden Jr., 75, a convicted felon who had just been released from a mental facility, reportedly broke into his ex-wife’s home in November and armed himself with a shotgun. When deputy Steve Gardner approached the house, Bowden fired a shotgun round at his face and pellets grazed his head.
Police rescued Betty Bowden, who was being held hostage, and eventually coerced Bowden out of the home, but not before he set it a blaze.
Bowden was booked with a sheaf of charges including attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson. No one was seriously injured, though Betty Bowden’s dog was found dead in the home. Gardner has since returned to the force.
A few weeks later in Jeanerette, Officer Clay Landry was shot in the back in an apparent assault when he responded to a trash bin fire in the middle of the night.
Ackal described the attack as “reprehensible” and held a press conference later in the week announcing the arrest and capture of Jonathan Thibodeaux, a Jeanerette man who has since been charged with several area bank robberies that reportedly occurred last year. “When you do that, you have seriously crossed the line,” Ackal said at the time.
In a police raid of Thibodeaux’s residence, bank wrappers from the alleged burglaries were recovered. No link between Landry and Thibodeaux has been established, and Ackal said an investigation found Landry never wrote a citation or had any documented encounters with Thibodeaux. Thibodeaux remains in jail on attempted murder and bank robbery charges.
5. Sugar Cane Festival and Fair allegations of police beatings
After initial reports of smooth sailing during the annual Sugar Cane Festival and Fair, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed several complaints of police beatings that took place during the Fais-do-do.
At least six local men were arrested and charged with public intoxication and remaining where forbidden. One of the men, Rolling Segura, was beaten so badly he was taken to a local hospital. The amount of force used in the arrests came under scrutiny by scores of witnesses and the men apprehended, who followed up with formal complaints of their own.
An internal affairs investigation struggled to identify any culprits in the Sheriff’s Office, Ackal said recently, as many of the deputies were hesitant to “rat on” their colleagues. Ackal recently said former narcotics officer Jerrel Tauzin was responsible for Segura’s injuries. Tauzin was implicated in a slew of local burglaries and fired in November.
“He ran up and kicked the guy and started beating him on the ground when he had handcuffs on,” Ackal said, “and that came out in the investigation.”
The arrests prompted a degree of internal restructuring within the Sheriff’s Office and Ackal said some deputies would be asked to take sensitivity education courses. “Someone acting up reflects badly on all of us,” Ackal said. “If everybody thinks that we’re all like that, we’ve got a problem.”
6. Election dud: After build up for races, two challengers drop out
Outgoing District 6 City Councilman Dan Doerle was to challenge Mayor Pro Tem Freddie DeCourt for his seat. Local businessman Chris Jordan was to challenge Mayor Hilda Curry.
The races were on ” except they weren’t. Doerle qualified for the race, but pulled out during qualifying, saying his engagement ” he is now married ” and changing personal life meant he wouldn’t be able to meet the obligations of the office now. No one else qualified for the Mayor Pro Tem race, leaving DeCourt unchallenged.
Jordan was the only other candidate for the mayoral race, but after sleeping on the decision, he decided he liked his job too much to leave it. “That’s really it,” he said. “My everyday job is probably better than most people’s vacations.”
Jordan also said he thought the city was “in pretty good hands” with Curry.
“Could I have made some changes? Absolutely. Would I have made some changes? Yes. But right now, that’s not really my career path,” Jordan said.
Those decisions took a little zest out of the local election season.
7. Amid complaints, a new police chief in Jeanerette
Recognizing the need for drastic change in law enforcement, the Jeanerette Board of Alderman appointed Larry Jones as new chief of police in Jeanerette. The appointment came two months after the former chief, Morman Alexander, was ousted from the post amid widespread complaints of inadequacies within the police department
“We want someone who can be aggressive and get in there and enforce the law,” Mayor Arthur L. Verret said. “We want to build a police force that can prevent burglaries and break-ins, loud music, loitering and littering.”
Jones, one of just four to apply for the job, has extensive experience in law enforcement including a stint as a detective at the Patterson Police Department and said he would first try to re-instill confidence in Jeanerette residents at a time when unsolved burglaries and robberies abound.
In an effort to retain and recruit a higher echelon of personnel, the board also significantly increased the police chief’s salary, raising the pay to $3,000 a month. Several other staff posts, including that of deputy, also received raises in the move.
8. Delcambre football team overcomes adversity again
The past three years were awful for Delcambre weather-wise ” but this year, its high school football team did it proud. The Panthers made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1999.
They defeated LaSalle High School in Olla in a class A bi-district state playoff, winning the 8A title the week before in Gueydan. A No. 19 seed, DHS succumbed only to Delhi Charter School, the No. 3 seed, shortly before Thanksgiving. The Delcambre community also strongly supported the team, with 350-400 fans traveling to LaSalle for the team’s second to last game.
“Whenever you go in town, if you go in a drugstore or in church, people are talking about it all over,” said Coach Darcy Delcambre shortly before the Panthers’ final game. “It’s all about the kids.”
9. Sheriff’s Office narc busted for burglaries
Burglaries put a damper on 2008 for many, and one of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s
Office’s own remains in jail today on charges for several of them. Jerrel A. Tauzin, who worked undercover for more than two years as a narcotics officer, was fired from the force in October after he admitted to burglarizing a residence on General Middleton Street in which he stole a .40-caliber pistol and several other goods.
Ackal said Tauzin was implicated in a series of other burglaries, including the burglary of a laptop containing more than $1 million worth of software. Tauzin also was found to have rented a storage facility to keep some of the goods.
Lafayette law enforcement officials are investigating at least three cases in which they said Tauzin could be charged.
Meanwhile, many of the cases Tauzin was involved in as an officer have been under review, and District Attorney Phil Haney said each would be judged on an individual basis as to whether they can still be prosecuted.
Shortly after Tauzin’s arrest, Ackal said Tauzin had been fired from the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office after working there for nearly 11 years. The Sheriff’s Office in Lafayette refused to confirm Ackal’s account, citing confidentiality of personnel.
10. Delcambre softball team takes state
After an eight-year dry spell, the Delcambre Lady Panthers went all the way, becoming state champions in a 13-inning game against Ouachita Christian.
Though that game was a hard-fought battle, DHS had talent on their side.
Jaci Trahan, named Most Valuable Player on The Daily Iberian’s 2008 Best of the Teche Softball Team, helped lead the Lady Panthers to their district title and state championship. Jenny Moneaux, Teirrany Peltier and Tailor Broussard were also named to the Best of the Teche team from Delcambre, and DHS coach Mark Suire was named Coach of the Year.
The girls on the team, said Suire, are willing to work hard and don’t give up on their dreams. “This was what we’ve been working for since the first day of practice,” Trahan said.
“We didn’t want a district title or a playoff game, we wanted the state championship. We finally did it.”
After their final victory, Suire said “I feel like this championship is a testament to all the kids that have played here.”
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