Grandmother, 73, held as sausage looter
http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/Sept05/160905sausages.htm
Grandmother, 73, held as sausage looter
Witnesses, even deli owner, says church deaconess was wrongly arrested
AP | September 16 2005
Merlene Maten undoubtedly stands out in the prison where she has been held since Hurricane Katrina. The 73-year-old church deaconess, never before in trouble with the law, now sleeps among hardened criminals. Her bail is a stiff $50,000.
Her offense?
Police say the grandmother from New Orleans took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli the day after Katrina struck.
Family and eyewitnesses have a different story. They say Maten is an innocent woman who had gone to her car to get some sausage to eat but was wrongly handcuffed by tired, frustrated officers who couldn’t catch younger looters at a store in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans.
Even the deli owner doesn't want her charged.
“There were people looting, but she wasn’t one of them. Instead of chasing after people who were running, they grabbed the old lady who was walking,� said Elois Short, Maten’s daughter, who works in traffic enforcement for New Orleans police.
Short has enlisted the help of the AARP, the senior citizens lobby, the Federal Emergency Management Agency legal assistance office, made up of volunteer lawyers, and a private attorney to get her mother freed. But the task has been complicated.
Maten has been moved from a parish jail to a state prison an hour away. And the judge who set $50,000 bail by phone â€â€