ST. MARTINVILLE -- Country music legend Willie Nelson and his tour manager were ordered to pay $1,024 each and were sentenced to six months of probation after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana here Tuesday. Nelson, tour manager David Anderson, Nelson's sister and two of the singer's tour bus drivers were cited on misdemeanor drug charges in September while traveling on Interstate 10 through St. Martin Parish. State Police investigators said they found 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms in a search prompted by a "strong odor of marijuana" during a routine motor coach inspection stop of his tour bus. [continues 583 words]
LAFAYETTE -- Country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson was cited on drug counts in St. Martin Parish after a traffic stop of his tour bus Monday allegedly yielded more than a pound of marijuana and a bag of psychedelic mushrooms. Nelson, 73, and four others traveling with him face misdemeanor charges of possession of Schedule I drugs, State Police spokesman Trooper Willie Williams said. Williams said officers found 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and two-tenths of a pound of hallucinogenic mushrooms on the tour bus during a traffic stop for a commercial vehicle inspection on Interstate 10 westbound near Breaux Bridge. [continues 333 words]
Richard Burgess Posted on December 20, 2002 LAFAYETTE - A former Abbeville police officer was sentenced Thursday to 17 years and six months in prison for his role in what prosecutors said was one of the largest crack cocaine rings in Acadiana. Calvin J. Broussard Sr., 49, who was a 17-year veteran of the police department when arrested, provided protection for the drug ring and passed along inside information on police activity to drug dealers to help them avoid getting caught, according to federal prosecutors. [continues 312 words]
LAFAYETTE - "This will make you feel great!" read the words printed next to the face of an attractive girl holding a small pill. "(or kill you.)" It was one of 11 anti-drug public service announcements unveiled Tuesday at a news conference by a partnership of the Lafayette Parish Medical Society and Lafayette General Medical Center. The announcements - scheduled to begin running in local media this month - take a different aim than antidrug messages of the past, focusing on designer drugs and the misuse of prescription medicines rather than marijuana and cocaine. [continues 324 words]
LAFAYETTE - A class action lawsuit has been filed against Morgan City, alleging that a policy that requires people arrested there to submit to drug test as a condition of bail is unconstitutional. State law allows the mandatory drug testing in some circumstances, and the policy is practiced in St. Mary, St. Martin and Iberia parishes by order of 16th Judicial District Court judges, according to the Morgan City Police Department. "On its face, it just doesn't seem right," Baton Rouge attorney Barrington Neil said Friday. [continues 364 words]
