Dr. Anna Maria Pou
BATON ROUGE, La. (Legal Newsline)-Dr. Anna Maria Pou will receive nearly $457,000 to pay some of her legal bills after being arrested by then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti for allegedly killing patients during Hurricane Katrina.
Pou, a state employee, was accused of killing patients stranded at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
An investigation by Foti led to the arrest of Pou, a professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
She was accused of giving the patients a lethal combination of the sedative Versed and morphine three days after the catastrophic storm made landfall.
An Orleans Parish grand jury refused to indict her on second degree murder charges. The charges against Pou have since been expunged.
Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's office said Wednesday that the governor signed legislation doling out the money to help pay for Pou's legal bills.
About $145,000 of the money will go to the Dr. Anna Pou Defense Fund and $312,000 will go to the Louisiana State University Healthcare Network for reimbursement of its legal costs related to the case.
The legislation was House Bill 341 by Rep. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero.
For his part, Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell was critical of Foti's handing of the Pou case. Caldwell, a former local prosecutor, challenged Foti, a fellow Democrat, in the 2007 general election.
From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.