[StBernard] Lee Zurik Investigation: Man charged in SDT dumping case exonerated

[Westley Annis]

Lee Zurik Investigation: Man charged in SDT dumping case exonerated

Updated: Oct 17, 2012 10:30 PM CDT
Written by: Lee Zurik - email

New Orleans, La. -
A judge has dismissed charges against a Gretna man accused of stealing a
truck owned by the garbage company SDT. It's a case that dates back to 2009,
and it had SDT owner Sidney Torres offering a $10,000 reward for the person
who did it.

Surveillance video of the incident prompted the sheriff's department in St.
Bernard Parish to arrest Phillip Barbarin for allegedly stealing an SDT
truck and illegally dumping sewage into a New Orleans storm drain.

"I was set up from the beginning," says Barbarin. "I always said I was
innocent. The DA always wanted me to take a deal. I refused to take deals. I
am an innocent man that got framed."

The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office arrested Barbarin three and a half years
ago, at the time saying they had proof he was the man who stole the truck
from SDT and owner Sidney Torres. But this week, the St. Bernard DA's office
dismissed the charges against Barbarin.

"This is one of the worst cases I've ever seen," says Barbarin's attorney,
John Fuller. "And I've handled 10,000 cases in my career."

Fuller says the DA had no evidence his client stole the truck. "Ultimately
the St. Bernard District Attorney's office did the right thing," Fuller
tells us. "When you have garbage, you put out the trash and they did that
finally."


>From the beginning, Barbarin told St. Bernard deputies that, at the time of

the theft and dumping, he was at a New Orleans hospital, visiting a friend.

Barbarin recalls, "I told the detectives, 'Why don't you stop worrying about
the video at SDT yard and go to University Hospital. That's where I was at.'
They said they had they had no jurisdiction to go to New Orleans to get
that."

Barbarin says St. Bernard deputies never listened to his story, and even
before he was arrested he thinks they treated him unfairly.

"They came and got me from my job illegally," Barbarin tells us. "They
didn't have a warrant. They just came and crossed the river in Harvey and
handcuffed me and said they wanted to have a talk with me at their
precinct."

Barbarin's attorney says the case had many holes. "My client, who is an
African-American male, was accused of stealing a truck in St. Bernard
Parish," says Fuller. "The same truck was seen later that night in New
Orleans and the guy seen was clearly not an African-American. It was clearly
not my client."

The St. Bernard Sheriff's Department and DA also said they had a witness,
but they never brought that witness to court.

"We subpoenaed the guy to come to court and said he never talked to the
detectives," Barbarin

says. "The detectives said they had fingerprints, a witness and video, and
all along they didn't have anything."

Barbarin says he was set up by SDT employees because he was a witness for
the federal government in its investigation of SDT illegally dumping sewage
in City Park.

"I think I got framed because the federal investigation they had going on
with the City Park incident," Barbarin tells us. "They were trying to
discredit me from that investigation."

Barbarin says now he can clear his name, almost four years after the St.
Bernard sheriff said this video was enough to make an arrest. "Four years
I've been dealing with this and it's finally over," Barbarin says. "It's put
a strain on my life. Every time I find a job they find out and think I did
this. I can finally get my life back in order."

St. Bernard Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann is out of town and unavailable for
comment. We reached out to former SDT owner Sidney Torres -- he did not get
in touch with us.