Charges against remaining guards in T’bonne juvenile center case dropped

Charges against three former guards at the Terrebonne Juvenile Detention Center were dropped last Tuesday following the acquittal of two other guards and guilty pleas from an additional duo in a case that shook the local system, led to an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and prompted sweeping changes in how staff and inmates are managed at the facility.

John Gathen and Chadwick Griffin, were scheduled to face trial on March 21 and Darren Carter was to be tried on April 18. Their cases were closed when a 15-year-old witness, who was allegedly victimized by the defendants, and who was to testify against them, ran away and could not be located by prosecutors.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Rhodes was reported to have said that another witness had additionally requested that charges be dropped.

On Feb. 17 a jury acquitted former guards Floyd Howard and Darwin Brown for their alleged roles in a sex for favors scandal that reportedly took place between adult guards and minor female inmates in 2009.

Two remaining men involved in the case, Angelo Vickers and Christopher Turner, each pleaded guilty to charges against them in exchange for lighter sentences.

A female guard, Tiffany Blakemore, was reportedly indicted in 2009 for obstruction of justice, but the charges were later dropped.

Last week, Rhodes had expressed his disappointment in the acquittals of Howard and Brown, but added that the one good element was that procedures at juvenile detention center were being corrected as a result of the scandal being exposed.

“From the very beginning, when this case broke, our goal was to clean up the facility at all costs and make it a safer place,” Rhodes told the Tri-Parish Times, following Howard’s and Brown’s acquittals. “In that regard we have succeeded. The larger goal is accomplished.”