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SULPHUR-BOUND!
May 13, 2015
Just over a year ago city police officials confirmed that the management of a local motel, branded as a hotbed of illicit activity, had developed a plan with officers to help clean things up.
While specific numbers are not yet available, Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis said he has not heard of problems for a while at the Sugar Bowl Motel, located at the corner of New Orleans Boulevard and West Park Avenue.
The March arrest on drug charges of a hotel manager resulted, police said, from a tip by one of the establishment’s owners. And while Duplantis can’t say whether the arrest is related to a lull in problems at the motel, he is certain that one way or another the cooperation overall between motel owner and the police is having a good effect.
“It’s always been a high drug area,” Duplantis said of the corner and surrounding streets. “I haven’t been hearing of many incidents going on over there like it used to be.”
The former manager, identified as Deidra Dee Trosclair, lived in room 266 of the Sugar Bowl, police and court records say.
On Friday, March 6, Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force agents and Houma Police officers conducted a “knock and talk” – an attempt to discuss potential drug traffic to further develop information they might have.
Agents, police records say, received information from a hotel co-owner that “subjects in several rooms were possibly distributing illegal narcotics.”
The uniformed officers spoke with Trosclair.
“My friend Donald,” she responded when police asked if anyone else was in the room. “He is in the bathroom.”
Donald Charles Collins emerged from the bathroom, at which time officers, the report reads, advised both of their right not to answer questions and to remain silent.
Asked if there were any illegal drugs in the room both replied “no,” the report says.
Trosclair and Collins consented to a search of the room and their belongings, which Trosclair signed.
After doing so Trosclair told officers that on the room’s countertop under her credit card, was a quantity of methamphetamine.
“Agent asked subject Trosclair who the methamphetamine belonged to and she replied ‘it’s mine,”‘ the report states.
Officers seized a small quantity of methamphetamine – one tenth of a gram – and in a backpack an additional full gram of the substance. They also discovered $2,800 in cash located in a folded up pair of little girl’s shorts.
In the same backpack, records show, was a Fabrique D’Armes DeGuerre DeGrande .25 caliber handgun. The weapon’s magazine was loaded with four .25 rounds, according to records.
Trosclair was charged with possession of a Schedule II controlled, dangerous substance; possession of drug paraphernalia and transactions involving proceeds from a drug offense.
Collins was charged with possession of a firearm while a controlled, dangerous substance is present and methamphetamine possession.
Both remain at the Terrebonne Parish jail in lieu of bond, with court cases pending.
“There is a reduction of crime going on near the Sugar Bowl motel,” Chief Duplantis said. “And this is good.”
Attempts to reach the hotel’s owner on Monday were not successful.
The Sugar Bowl motel at West Park Avenue and New Orleans Boulevard has been the subject of police scrutiny due to allegations of drug use, sales and prostitution nearby or on the premises The owners have been workinq with citv officers to eliminate problems.
