[StBernard] Feds subpoena St. Bernard government for SDT records

[Westley Annis]

Whoooooweee!!!

No wonder Lil' Sidney got Pat Fanning as an attorney.  Daddy Sidney must
have told him
"son, I can't help you on this one." !

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	Feds subpoena St. Bernard government for SDT records
	
	07:26 PM CST on Tuesday, December 2, 2008
	
	Lee Zurik / Eyewitness News 
	
	Eyewitness News has learned the U.S. Attorney's Office has issued a
federal
	subpoena to St. Bernard Parish government for records, contracts and
	payments made to its garbage collector, SDT Waste and Debris
Services. 
	
	
	
	The subpoena calls for all records to be handed over to a federal
grand jury
	on December 19.  SDT's business practices have been the focus of a
	 series
	of
	WWL "4 Investigates" reports. 
	
	
	Sources tell Eyewitness News that a subpoena also went to the
landfill where
	SDT dumps its garbage, River Birch on the west bank. 
	
	
	As WWL-TV has reported, River Birch notified St. Bernard 11 months
ago that
	its landfill payments had skyrocketed since the parish opened a
waste
	transfer station. 
	
	
	The grand jury is also expected to hear about the federal
government's
	environmental investigation into SDT possibly dumping sewage from
portable
	toilets. 
	
	
	Last month, an SDT driver told Eyewitness News that he was told to
dump
	sewage in a City Park manhole following Voodoo Fest. 
	
	
	Loyola University Law School professor Dane Ciolino says the
subpoena to
	testify before a grand jury shows the federal government is in the
early to
	middle stages of a wide ranging investigation. 
	
	
	"Typically what this signals is that prosecutors have
	 probable cause that
	some federal crime has been committed," Ciolino said. 
	
	
	"In this case, prosecutors believe they have probable cause
environmental
	criminal laws or federal fraud laws have been implicated." 
	
	
	U.S. Attorney  Jim Letten was unavailable for comment, but in
response to a
	call from WWL, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann responded "The
grand
	jury process is secretive, so it would be inappropriate to talk
about what
	may or may not happen." 
	
	
	SDT attorney Pat Fanning told Eyewitness News he "has no knowledge
of a
	subpoena or what they (the federal government) are seeking...but we
welcome
	any inquiries and will be fully cooperative."