Nursing home owners acquitted in Katrina deaths

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La., Sep 8 (Reuters) The owners of a New Orleans-area nursing home were found not guilty of all charges today in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned in one of the worst tragedies of Hurricane Katrina.

Salvador Mangano, 67, and his wife Mabel Mangano, 65, faced 35 counts of negligent homicide and 24 counts of cruelty to the infirm, but a six-member jury acquitted them after deliberating about 3 1/2 hours following three weeks of testimony.

The Manganos hugged each other when the jury verdict was read, and choked back tears as they left the courtroom.

''Y'all don't want to hear what I got to say,'' Salvador Mangano said as he walked past reporters.

Katrina's 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge trapped and drowned residents at the Manganos' St Rita's nursing home near New Orleans during the August. 29, 2005, storm that killed more than 1,400 people along the US Gulf Coast.

Prosecutors accused them of negligence and greed for failing to evacuate their residents, saying they did not heed government warnings and did not want to spend money to transport their residents elsewhere.

But defense attorneys said the Manganos, who stayed at the nursing home during the storm, did not think floodwaters would reach the building and believed their residents were too frail to move.

They blamed local and federal governments for building poorly constructed levees that allowed the floodwaters in and for failing to adequately warn of the storm's dangers. No mandatory evacuation order was given, they said.

The government failed ''woefully and horribly'' in ''its duties to keep us safe and its duty to warn us of the danger that was there,'' attorney John Reed said in closing arguments to the jury of four women and two men.

After the verdict, Reed told Reuters: ''I'm grateful that this lengthy ordeal for Sal and Mabel is over. These are two good-hearted and hard-working people who did not deserve what was visited upon them by the state of Louisiana.'' In a statement to reporters, he described the Manganos as ''happy beyond description,'' but would not say if they planned to reopen their business.

The Manganos still face a number of lawsuits filed by relatives of the victims.

Prosecutor Paul Knight told reporters: ''It's our job to see that the victims are given a chance, that justice was given a chance. This jury has spoken.'' The Manganos' nursing home is in St Bernard Parish, a low-lying area southeast of New Orleans that was devastated when Katrina's storm surge overwhelmed protective levees.

They managed to save 24 of their residents, but faced cruelty to the infirm charges for each of them.

Their trial, which began on August. 16 and included testimony by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, was moved 125 miles (200 km) northwest to St. Francisville to get an unbiased jury.

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