Former Attorney General Charles Foti paid contractors almost $90,000 to assess medical data in his failed effort to prosecute Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses for allegedly killing patients at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press under a freedom of information request show the contracts paid up to $300 an hour. Foti, who was defeated in a 2007 re-election bid, accused Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry of killing patients with overdoses of a sedative-painkiller mix after the August 2005 storm. Neither the doctor nor nurses went to trial on the allegations. A state board has recommended Pou, an LSU employee, be reimbursed for almost $500,000 in legal expenses.
