Family Alleges Cover-Up In Mayor’s Death
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LAKE CHARLES, La. — Investigators who determined that the first black mayor elected in the mostly white Louisiana town of Westlake killed himself are covering up a murder, the man’s widow and children allege in a lawsuit.
Mary Washington and her adult children claim Gerald Washington was killed by a “known, organized criminal enterprise,” but they cannot immediately provide the killers’ names, they wrote in the lawsuit filed last week without the help of an attorney. The family paid for an autopsy by renowned forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who said yesterday that he told the family there was too much evidence that wasn’t examined to rule out suicide or murder.
“This case cried out for a very, very detailed kind of forensic scientific investigation — footprints, fingerprints, any other kinds of materials, DNA trace evidence, an in-depth time study,” Mr. Wecht said. He said that was not done.
Gerald Washington, 57, was found dead from a bullet wound to the chest on December 30, 2006, days before he was to take office.
