48 Hours - No Way Out

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

This classic episode of 48 Hours, which last aired on 7/5/2008, explores a tragedy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After Hurricane Katrina had passed over southeastern Louisiana, many people thought the region had been spared from the most severe damage. But the worst was yet to come: on Monday, August 29th 2005, the region's protective levees started to fail, and entire communities were overwhelmed by floodwater. Could the operators of St. Rita's Nursing Home, Sal and Mabel Magano, be held responsible after 35 people in their care die? "48 Hours" correspondent Harold Dow reports. Watch all-new episodes of 48 Hours on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. My father, T.J. Galladuro, was the nicest gentleman you'd ever want to meet in your life. He always showed by example the right things to do and loved to spend time with us. A real role model of how a person should be. He had maybe a little fall and went to the hospital.

The doctor said, he needs 24-hour care. You're going to have to look at a facility. He needs 24-hour care. You're going to have to look at a facility. We've secured a spot for him at St. Rita's Nursing Home. It was one of the hardest things in my life that I had to do. Sal and Mabel Mangano ran St. Rita's Nursing Home. They'd been in business for some 20 plus years. Mabel was the administrator. This was a lady who physically cared for these residents, bathed them, dried them.

To say we loved them, I think, was an understatement. We had tons of good times, and we had one bad time. Had everything one day, the next day it was gone. Most of New Orleans is underwater. The house is blown away. Hurricane Katrina is a monster storm. This couldn't be happening to us. No time to run, no place to hide.

The water smashes into the nursing home with the force of a tidal wave. It's like a tsunami. They then busted out the windows, busted out the doors. They took people out on mattresses, lifted them up onto the roof, put them in boats. They saved 24 residents. They'd like to have saved them all. It was only after the storm that we found out that the McGannos

had never evacuated. 35 of those elderly, frail people died. Drowned in a nursing home where they should have been evacuated. Why did those 35 people die? Because they were there. To think that my dad had drowned was just more than I could bear. Mabel did it and she just threw it all away. She gambled with their lives. Sal and Mabel Mangano are facing 35 counts of negligent homicide. They let my mother drown like a rat.

I felt like I was going to wake up soon. This had to be a bad dream. It couldn't be happening. They're guilty. There's something incredibly unfair and un-American about picking up a grandma and a grandpa and putting the sins of Katrina on them and only them. If convicted, on all counts, how much time are your clients looking at? More than 200 years each. So when that happens and I'm the lawyer standing between those folks and the state, it does get real personal.

They're going to have to come through us to get to Sal and Mabel. No way out. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with

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You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The Best Idea Yet. Just southeast of New Orleans, in St. Bernard Parish, St. Rita's nursing home sits empty and silent. It's where Joe Galloduro and his sister Cheryl last saw their father, TJ, alive. It hasn't been easy. You know, we've all struggled in our own ways. You know, a lot of guilt.

To hear that my dad was left in a building and drowned, that's just unforgivable. The people Cheryl can't forgive are the nursing home's owners, Sal and Mabel Mangano. As we stand here right now and you look at that facility, what thoughts go through your mind? How sad it is because I was told that he would be cared for the way he needed to be cared for and taken out of harm's way.

They lied to us and therefore my father perished. cared for the way he needed to be cared for and taken out of harm's way. They lied to us and fared for my father, Paris. The last weekend of TJ Gallodaro's life was in late August 2005. All over the Gulf Coast, preparations were being made for Katrina, the hurricane many predicted would be the big one. Pray for us. Pray for all of New Orleans.

I had a gut feeling that this was going to be the bad one. Last 10-4. Larry Ingaggiola was the director of Homeland Security for St. Bernard Parish. I believed that we were going to see 20, 22 feet of water. It appears as though we are in the path of a direct hit. Parish clerk Polly Boudreau says St. Bernard officials were desperately telling residents to leave.

There were messages over and over, not just parish government messages on our cable station, but the news media was out saying the same thing. It's huge, it's bigger than we've ever seen, and it's coming right at us. The reality sunk in for a vast majority of our residents Friday and Saturday that made them pack up and go. That Saturday night, Cheryl was checking in on her father one last time at St. Rita's

before she took her family north. My dad looked up and calls me Shay. That was a little pet name he had for me. And he said, Shay, you coming to get me tomorrow? They have a hurricane coming. I looked at him and I said, well, Dad, you know, you're going to be taken care of. He listened, he heard, he knew it, but waited a little while. And again, that same question came,

Cheryl, you coming to get me tomorrow? Cheryl knew it was too risky to move her frail father herself, so she was relying on St. Rita's to take him out of harm's way. One of the nurses came in, sat on a chair, knee to knee with me, held my hands, and she said, Cheryl, you need to go, and don't worry about your dad. The home has an evacuation plan, and he'll be fine.

You need to leave your dad with us, because you're not able to tend to his needs. I was crying, and she kept assuring me, this is where your dad needs to be. He will be taken care of. Also relying on St. Rita's to take care of his mother, Eva, was Tom Rodrigue, an emergency management official in neighboring Jefferson Parish. But Rodrigue was having trouble getting in touch with the Manganos. I called at least twice on Saturday.

Both times I asked for whether or not they were available, and I was told they were not. So when I hung up, I called the emergency manager for St. Bernard, who I knew, and I spoke with him, and he told me, hey, tomorrow they're going to call for a mandatory evacuation. They'll have to respond. By Sunday morning, August 28th, Katrina was churning through the Gulf and was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane, the most dangerous kind. At 8 a.m., parish officials broadcast their starkest warning yet to those who might still be in the parish.

You need to leave. You must leave St. Bernard Parish and head north. But just after that message was broadcast, parish officials learned that St. Rita's nursing home had still not evacuated. It was shocking. I think we were all mortified at that stage that they would still be there. Did you want St. Rita's to evacuate your mom and all the other residents? Absolutely. I really never had any options. I had to depend on them. Polly Boudreau was ordered to call Mabel Mangano to see if St. Rita's needed buses to evacuate. to see if St. Rita's needed buses to evacuate.

Her comment was that they were concerned about the condition of very frail patients, that if they put them on the buses, those who were the most frail would not survive the trip on the bus. Later that morning, parish coroner Brian Bertucci called St. Rita's again. I spoke to Mabel and told her that I had two buses that could take the residents wherever she wanted. The response that I got was that we have five special needy patients, five nurses, two generators, and I've spoken to most of the families and they said we could stay. My response was, do you want the buses or do you not want the buses?

The answer was no. But by Sunday night, as the storm closed in, Cheryl Galladuro was hundreds of miles away, still thinking she had left her frail and sickly 82-year-old father in good hands. When I kissed my dad goodbye, you know, I didn't know that that would be for the last time I'd ever kiss him goodbye. He, um, had a look on his face like, you know, you're leaving me. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty, her specialty representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the

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app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of them. the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years,

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As Sunday night turned into Monday, Hurricane Katrina closed in and began to punish St. Bernard Parish. I was on the phone continuously. I had one phone each year, talking to the residents of St. Bernard Parish that didn't leave yet. Still talking to me. I got two kids. I'm here by myself. Oh God, please let it stop. You know, I still get the goosebumps thinking about it at night.

I still wake up in the middle of the night hearing these voices. Oh God, please let it stop. Please let it stop. But when day broke on Monday, August 29th, it seemed St. Bernard Parish had been spared. And the winds were starting to subside a little. Parish President Junior Rodriguez was relieved.

Well, I said, you know, I think we got it. We did all right. We made it. How did our levees hold up down there? Did it breach any of them? We couldn't have filled that hole by now. We were on the top floor of the government complex. We said we escaped this time. And I guarantee you, within a half hour,

we were cursing everybody around. That's because the worst news imaginable started coming in. The levees had been breached, and the parish was filling up with water, fast. OEP St. Bernard, OEP State. Veronica is flooded up to five feet and is rising. OEP St. Bernard, OEP State. A little girl just called me, she's trapped in her house. Our hospital is just falling apart on us. At that point in time I said well, you know the levies didn't hold, we're in trouble. Have an EMT firefighter on boats that go out. By Monday evening, parish officials were marooned on the roof of the government center.

Describe the situation in St. Bernard Parish. 28 feet of water. A lake. We had a lot of serious problems in this parish. There was a smell of death in here. We need some boats. We need some supplies here at this building. We had no electricity, no phones, no cell phones.

St. Bernard was physically dead. Since communications were cut off, no one knew what had happened at St. Rita's nursing home. So on Wednesday, a fireman in St. Bernard Parish commandeered a boat and drove it to the nursing home's front door. That fireman was Steve Gallodoro, the brother of Cheryl and Joe. He's calling out. No one's answering. Takes a few steps and bumps into something. And the next thing he realizes is that it's a body. Takes a few more steps and he realizes another body floating.

So he told me at that point he was... he didn't want to take another step because if the next body would have been my father, he didn't know whether or not he could have handled that. Steve says he radioed his firehouse with the news of his tragic discovery. Then he went to a nearby school where he heard the survivors had been taken. The nurses and the attendants that work at St. Rita's were there,

and he couldn't get any of them to look him in the face. And he kept on get any of them to look him in the face. And he kept on pleading with them to tell him where my father was. And finally one of the attendants looked up crying and said, we tried Steve, we tried, but we couldn't save him. I had to tell my mother that, you know, Daddy didn't make it. Well, you know, now I'm telling the lady who's sitting in a wheelchair on oxygen that the person we left behind drowned. The person we left behind drowned.

Parish coroner Brian Bertucci was now put in charge of a recovery effort. When you got there, describe the scene. What was it like? What did you see? It was something that you can't imagine. Furniture was all over, wheelchairs. We went from room to room, retrieved bodies, tried to identify people, but these people had been in water so long that they were bloated. Thirty-five bodies were ultimately pulled out of St. Rita's, yet it was unclear what had happened to the owners,

Sal and Mabel Mangano. That made them villains to some, like CNN's Nancy Grace. And now I'm hearing that these two owners that made money off all of these elderly nursing home citizens were out shopping, shopping, after all of these elderlies died. It turns out the Manganos weren't shopping. They remained in the flooded parish for several days until their surviving residents were all evacuated. Then, like so many others, the Mangano's themselves were evacuated to Texas.

That's when they heard the Louisiana Attorney General's office was looking for them. So they hired attorney Jim Cobb. The public perception fueled by a ridiculous 24-hour news cycle media was that the Mangano's abandoned their residence. To this day people say well you know gosh why did they leave them. So Cobb brought the Mangano's to the Attorney General's office in Baton Rouge to explain what happened but when they got there the Mangano's were immediately arrested and each was charged with 35 counts of negligent homicide and 24

counts of cruelty to the infirm. When they put me in a cell and they shut that door, reality really, really sunk in. I couldn't believe that I was being locked up in this cell. I hadn't even had a traffic ticket in 20 years, 25 years, and all of a sudden I wake up one day and I'm charged with killing 35 people and being cruel to the people that we love so much. Even as the Manganos were released on bail, Attorney General Charles Foti took the case public. The pathetic thing is, in this case, once again, is that they were asked if they wanted

to move them. They refused to move them. They had a contract to move, they did not. And in St. Bernard Parish, particularly among people like Tom Rodrigue, whose mother died at St. Rita's, there was little sympathy for the couple. I counted on them to take care of her.

They let you down? I think they let every family member of the 35 people that died down. When 67-year-old Sal Mangano and his 65-year-old wife Mabel visit their gutted nursing home today, it's a bittersweet experience a lot of memories come back to mind super a lot of good memories we had some great residents we had some good times enjoyed them loved them and it breaks your heart the couple has never before spoken of what happened at St. Rita's. You knew these people. You knew them well. Absolutely, and loved them.

How do you get into this business if you don't love the business you're in? A lot of people couldn't do the things that we did. And it was a family thing. My children were involved, my grandchildren. It's very difficult to come in a building. We have heavy hearts. St. Rita's was well regarded, not only by residents' families, but by professionals, like St. Bernard Coroner Dr. Brian Bertucci. We had four nursing homes out here, and I think St. Rita's was probably the best.

Bertucci was once the nursing home's medical director. The patients were well-bathed. They were well-fed. They would get them out of bed, put them in wheelchairs, had good recreational activities. Then came Hurricane Katrina, and everything changed. The Manganos were hunkered down in the nursing home with 59 residents and over 30 family members, friends, and staff that stormy Sunday night. But like others in St. Bernard Parish, they were fooled when the winds died down the next morning.

The parking lot didn't have any water in it, not even rainwater. So we felt real good the morning of the hurricane. We felt have any water in it, not even rain water. So we felt real good the morning of the hurricane. We felt like, God, it's gone. We we have it made. All of our residents are safe. They began to cook the home's traditional Monday lunch, red beans and rice. Then suddenly, at about 1030, I was standing at the center of the building right in front of my office,

and I heard them say, the water's coming. A wall of water came rushing across the road directly at St. Rita's. It slammed into the nursing home, and water was soon cascading into the building. The Mangano's say it rose nearly 10 feet in just 20 minutes. When they said the water was coming, I walked to the front door, and when I looked at it, I said, oh, please, dear God, just let it level off. When I said that, this wall blew out. The whole wall came out. And when that wall came out, I ended up past the other nurse's station. The water rose so fast. The water level was right here. The Mangano's son,

Sal Jr., had to swim to get to his boat. We jumped out the window, and the water took us off of our feet, and from that point, we just kind of went right across that white fence right there. Well, this water carried you right over that fence? Over the top of the fence. Meanwhile, Mabel was desperately trying to hold on to two residents as the water rose. I was standing up here. My feet were up here, and the water was already up to my chest. And I had one resident on this side, and she couldn't stand, so she kept pulling me down. And then on the other side, we had a resident on a mattress,

and her husband was with her. I was actually hanging on to the mattress, and when the water got so high where the resident was starting to hit the under part, then I started hanging on to the gutter because the water got so high, the resonant was starting to hit the under part. Then I started hanging on to the gutter because the water kept coming up higher. So we got all these people on the boat and then they took me off of this. Were you afraid? Yes. For your life?

Yes. I was. At what point did you realize, did you know, that you lost quite a few people? We knew it pretty much all along. When the water hit them, if there was a wheelchair, the wheelchair turned over. As fast as it came in the building, they drowned within a matter of just a little bit, we figured, you know. What were you thinking? What were you feeling? It was horrible. When you knew that you'd lost so many? It was horrible that we'd lost this many people, and we were hoping we could have saved more.

When I say horrible, it was horrible. The Manganos and their staff saved 24 residents and got them to safety that afternoon. By week's end, the survivors were moved out of the parish. But once the 35 bodies were discovered here at St. Rita's, no one thought of the Manganos as heroes. Our position on this is not so much what they did, but what they didn't do. They didn't do anything. Prosecutors Julie Cullen and Paul Knight say the Manganos's should never have had to rescue anyone. The thing that's important is to understand the bright line in this case, because the case was not ever about the chaos that Katrina became after it made landfall.

The charges against the Mangano's are based on what the couple did in the days and months before the storm, beginning with the filing of this evacuation plan. It's our position. It was just a plan on paper. It was never going to be enforced. They had no intention of evacuating. The plan, which Louisiana nursing homes are required to file every year, included an agreement with an ambulance company that would take the home's neediest patients out of harm's way first. They made no calls to the ambulance service to try to evacuate any special needs patients that

they had. The plan also included a letter from a bussing company called Regional Transportation which agreed to take residents out of the parish in the event of an emergency. But prosecutors charge that agreement was little more than a contract with themselves. It's a letter that is on Regional Transportation, Inc. letterhead, and it's addressed to Mrs. Mabel Mangano, administrator, St. Rita's Nursing Home. And it's signed, sincerely, Salvador Mangano, President, Regional Transportation, Inc. It could just as easily have been signed, Love, Sal.

And the only vehicle that was owned was one nine-passenger van. With just one van, the Manganos could not possibly move all their residents, proof prosecutors say that they had no intention of evacuating. How are you going to get all the people out in one van? Well, we figured if we would call a mandatory evacuation that they would, we had to go, we would have got buses or something from somebody. And I believe if they would have called a mandatory evacuation at the parish, we would have furnished some kind of buses.

But transportation was not the main issue, says Mabel. It was very difficult to make a decision on who's plug to pull first. What do you mean? Well, who do you take off of the life support first? Do you take my mom, your mom, Sal's mom? So what are you saying then? That if you decide to unplug someone, are you saying that their life might be in jeopardy? I would, yes, I would think so.

That's what you're saying? Yes, yes. So this is not an easy decision to make. Very, very difficult. Are you saying that their life might be in jeopardy? I would, yes, I would think so. That's what you're saying? Yes. Yes. So this is not an easy decision to make. Very, very difficult. It's a life or death decision. Absolutely. You really believe that?

I really believe that. So the Mangano's made a plan to shelter in place, just as they had done for every previous hurricane. Sheltering in place is a well-recognized concept of emergency preparedness and emergency management nationwide, not just in hurricane states. And sheltering in place means that you make a conscious decision to stay where you are, to batten down the hatches, to do everything you need to have supplies and food and water and medicines to last a week if you have to without any help from the outside world. Yet none of the parish's other nursing homes made the same decision.

There were four nursing homes in St. Bernard Parish who were all dealing with the same warnings, the same geographical, topographical conditions. The other three nursing homes evacuated 188 elderly residents similar in age and medical condition to those residents in St. Rita's. Out of 188, one died as opposed to 35 drowning in St. Rita's. Did the Manganos commit a crime in not evacuating St. Rita's? Of course not. So who killed the 35 people at St. Rita's? We know who did that.

So if you're looking for a murderer we know who it is By defending Sal and Mabel Mangano, Attorney Jim Cobb believes he's representing all of those who suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. JIM COBB, Attorney, Hurricane Katrina, When I walk through my neighborhood and I see empty houses and I see people that can't get back home, for any government to suggest that it's the victim's fault is outrageous. And so I take it real personal. They stayed in the nursing home they refused to evacuate cobb charges that the

government is making sal and mabel scapegoats for its own failures during katrina what do they do they went out and got a mug shot and said this isn't our fault it's these two people's fault 34 people drowned when government didn't have the guts or the competence to do what they should have done regarding supplies and equipment. Some of the blame, he says, lies with St. Bernard Parish officials who could have ordered the Manganos to leave by declaring a mandatory evacuation.

If you would have gotten a mandatory evacuation order, what would you have done? We would have evacuated. A mandatory evacuation order is hereby called for all of the parish of Orleans. The city of New Orleans and several neighboring parishes did declare mandatory evacuations in the days leading up to Katrina, but St. Bernard Parish did not. Can I get in your office to get your radio? Parish clerk Polly Boudreau says there was confusion about what to do.

clerk Polly Boudreau says there was confusion about what to do. We don't need confusion here. I guess the issue that everybody faced was who has the right to call a mandatory evacuation, and if it's called, who then is supposed to enforce it? What does it mean, mandatory? How do you force people to go? There's Junior Rodriguez, man. Parish President Junior Rodriguez says the reluctance to call a mandatory evacuation was also an issue of money. When we issue a mandatory, that's when most of the businesses shut down.

Banks shut down and also refineries begin to shut down. It's a substantial loss. To prosecutors, the absence of an official mandatory evacuation order... I would strongly urge anyone who feels uncomfortable to leave now....is just a technicality. With a storm that's a category 5 bearing down on you, does it really make any difference? It's predicted that we're gonna take a direct hit by this hurricane. Do you think the parish government did everything it could to make it clear that people should evacuate St. Bernard's Parish?

It was crystal clear to about 61,000 people. 92% of the people got the message and got out of there safely. Prosecutors say even calls parish officials made to the Manganos went unheeded, including Coroner Dr. Bertucci's offer of buses. Now, Mabel, on Sunday, you spoke with Dr. Brian Bertucci. What did he say to you on that phone call? I never spoke with Dr. Bertucci. Mabel claims that call never happened. I would remember if Dr. Bertucci talked to me.

But Bertucci is adamant. He offered the buses directly to Mabel. I definitely spoke with Mabel Mangano. I vividly recall, imprinted on my mind. In any case, the Manganos say that in the absence of a direct order, their experience during previous storms convinced them that it was safer for their residents to ride out Hurricane Katrina. You're looking down a hallway at 60 old folks, and you know your property hasn't flooded for 40 years. It didn't flood in Betsy, and you've got two new sets of protection levies,

are you going to walk down the hall and start pulling plugs on people? But as the Mangano's now know, the very levy system built to withstand hurricanes even more severe than Katrina failed. We feel like it wasn't the hurricane that killed our residents. It was the breakage of the levees that killed them. If the levees wouldn't have broke, we would have been the heroes of the parish. This was a man-made disaster. Cobb says that disaster was caused by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

He says the Corps not only built the levees that failed, like this one, it also built a canal that destroyed thousands of acres of protective wetlands that once slowed hurricanes down before they reached New Orleans. That canal is called the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. People here call it Mr. Go. So who killed the 35 people at St. Rita's? It's the Mr. Go, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, built, engineered, designed, and constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps designed the canal to merge with another waterway as it reaches New Orleans. That design, according to many experts, accelerates a storm's rising waves, making them deadly. They call it the Hurricane Highway. And the people in St. Bernard have been complaining about it for 20 years.

We've been begging for years and years and years to do something about this mystical, and this is a direct effect of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. And what has the Corps done to those complaints? You'll be okay. The levies will hold. And that's what Sal and Mabel relied upon,

and that's what thousands of other people relied upon. Those people overnight lost everything through absolutely no fault of their own. Ivor Van Heerden is deputy director of the Hurricane Center at Louisiana State University. The state of Louisiana asked him to investigate the failure of the levees around New Orleans during Katrina. His well-publicized conclusion? They weren't built right, especially the one protecting St. Bernard Parish. This is the levee that failed so catastrophically

This is the levee that failed so catastrophically during Katrina. Built out of porous materials like dirt and sand... The waves will just chew it up. Van Heerden says the levee was no match for 18-foot seas. And sections of the levee simply washed away. The parish began filling up with water. St. Rita's became a death trap. So who then do you think is responsible for the 35 deaths at St. Rita's? In my opinion, the loss of life, the damage, all the destruction rests solely on the US Army

Corps of Engineers. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Fody seemed to agree by filing a lawsuit against the federal government and asking for billions of dollars in damages for the residents of Greater New Orleans. He filed a petition under oath in which he alleges that the Corps of Engineers recklessly, willfully, wantonly, through gross negligence, allowed these levees to collapse. That's the definition of negligent homicide. Instead, that same Attorney General charged the Manganos with negligent homicide,

blaming them alone for the 35 deaths at St. Rita's. So how can it be the Manganos' fault and the federal government's fault? Well, it can't, can it? It felt like we were being railroaded. Still, on the eve of the trial, Cobb knows the Manganos are in for the fight of their lives. If convicted on all counts, how much time are your clients looking at? More than 200 years each.

Are your clients worried? Worried sick. This was your house? Yes. That's the remnants of Hurricane Katrina. It's a hard thing now to have to look back and say, okay, it can never be the same again. It's been a really tough two years. Not a day goes by that I don't think of my dad. How do you feel about the Mangano's today?

We have to leave it up to the criminal justice system to handle. Will I be a happier person if they're in jail? I don't know. Are you ever happy that a person is incarcerated for the rest of their life? With life in prison a real possibility, Sal and Mabel Mangano found it hard to make a new start. Their home, their business, and their reputation were all destroyed.

They were shunned by people they once called friends. Finding it impossible to remain in St. Bernard Parish, the Manganos moved to Baton Rouge. Can you describe what the past two years have been like for both of you? It's been very, very difficult. We're recognized everywhere we go. So I feel like we have a stigma that's going to follow us for a long time. Prosecutors say the Mangano's brought

these problems upon themselves. 35 people died because they were at St. Rita's on the morning of August the 29th. There's some cases that just have to be tried. There are some cases that you feel really strongly about. I hope they come back and they put them under the deal. Because feelings about the case are so strong, the trial is moved to rural St. Francisville, more than 100 miles from St. Bernard Parish. And in August 2007, nearly two years after Katrina, the trial begins. Well, it all started this morning at around 9 o'clock. In 2007, nearly two years after Katrina, the trial begins. Well, it all started this morning at around 9 o'clock.

There is enormous media attention, even though cameras are not allowed in the courtroom. Members of victims' families are a daily presence at the trial. Every family had a story about their loved one, about the joy that they brought them, even though they were in a nursing home. It was a tragedy for these families beyond anything you can, that I could imagine at the time. As the trial gets underway, several family members, including fireman Steve Gallodoro, testify in court that the Mangano's told them they would evacuate the nursing home before Katrina struck. Did you ever tell anyone that you were going to evacuate?

No. And I told them we were sheltering in place. And by the way, that's the preferable thing to do. The defense strategy is to try to make the trial about government failures that led to the flooding of St. Bernard Parish. To make that point as dramatically as possible, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is forced to testify. Would you both raise your right hand? Defense attorneys grill Blanco about testimony she gave to Congress in December 2005.

We in Louisiana know hurricanes, and hurricanes know us. We would not be here today if the levees had not failed. And I said, Governor, did you say that? Yes, I did. Was it true then? Yes. Is it true now? Yes.

And I pointed to Sal and Mabel, and I said, and they wouldn't be here either if the levees had not failed, would they? Objection. But the point was made. They just took the approach of, we're not going to talk about the Manganos.

We're going to talk about everybody else. For four weeks, prosecutors and defense attorneys wrestle over the issue of who is really responsible for the St. Rita's tragedy. Yet, as the defense case draws to a close, neither Sal nor Mabel takes the stand to tell their story, even at the risk of a guilty verdict. They were just too fragile to testify, but most importantly, we thought we were

winning the case. I think it would have been difficult for them to answer questions about their emergency plan, and they were the only ones who could answer those questions. It was a difficult back and forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys, who both made their closing arguments today. We are waiting on a jury, which is like the Tom Petty song, the waiting is the hardest part. As far as I'm concerned, I think the state proved their case. But I think it's because they feel so guilty.

As family members talk to the media, they are shadowed by the Mangano's son, Sal Jr. They should go to jail and pay for what they did. I really need to get back and take care of, you know, my job, too. Yeah, where you work. Nick, get him away from me, man. I think everybody's kind of wearing their emotions on their sleeve right now. This has been a very long, hard fight for everybody.

After just three and a half hours, and ironically, as a thunderstorm strikes, hard fight for everybody. After just three and a half hours, and ironically, as a thunderstorm strikes, there's a verdict. When the judge said, would you please stand up, I felt like my knees were gonna- Go onto the table. Fall out from under me. I just felt like I can't do this anymore.

The verdict is swift and decisive. Not guilty on all 118 counts. Oh, dear Lord. We were relieved. I just collapsed on Sal. My knees buckled. We just hugged and cried. We hugged each other and started crying.

Thank you. For the Manganos and their legal team, it is complete vindication. Our first thoughts are of our residents and their family members. Not a day has gone by since August the 29th, 2005, when we have not thought of them, missed them and prayed for them. A dirty son of a S.O.B. For the families of those who died at St. Rita's, it's another devastating blow. And this jury didn't find them guilty, but our Lord knows they are.

And when they meet their maker, they're never going to be able to get out of it then. I know the pain that they're suffering. They are suffering, and I'm sorry for their suffering. But we are suffering too. Despite their victory, the Manganos are like most others in St. Bernard Parish, left to pick up the pieces of their broken lives. I regret that we lost people that we loved, but the decision is made and we can't go back and change it. The Mangano's, they have to you know go to bed every night,

put their head on a pillow. And I know what my dreams are like. I have no idea what their dreams are like. Forgiveness is a hard thing. Maybe in time, that'll come. Sometimes, you know, we have to forgive ourselves first. and then we can start forgiveness's sued the Manganos. The majority of them have settled. In 2018, the Mangano's became part owners of a new assisted living facility built at St. Rita's site.

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