11wbshepherd4Susan Poag / The Times-PicayuneAs his attorney John Reed, his mother Margie H. Richardson and father Eddie Shepherd stand by his side,State Sen. Derrick Shepherd,second from right, apologizes to his family and constituents after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering at the federal courthouse on October 10, 2008. His bond was revoked Friday and he was jailed after being arrested on outstanding warrants. A federal judge ordered former state Sen. Derrick Shepherd to jail on Friday, where he will remain until his February sentencing on corruption charges.

The decision by U.S. Judge Carl Barbier included revoking Shepherd’s bond, which had allowed him to remain free on bond after he pleaded guilty in a federal money laundering conspiracy.

Jim Letten.JPGThe Times-PicayuneJim Letten

The judge’s actions come on the heels of Shepherd’s arrest earlier this week on outstanding warrants, including one in New Orleans for domestic violence. According to New Orleans Municipal Court documents, Shepherd last February hit a woman and bit her. He is scheduled to stand trial in that case next week.

“One of the warrants is from last February and arose from a disagreement with a woman friend, ” Shepherd’s lawyer, John Reed, is reported as telling the Associated Press earlier this week.

Shepherd was arrested in Jefferson Parish in 2008 after he broke into his ex-girlfriend Thaise Ashford’s home, punched her in the stomach and took her cell phone and $100.

Those are seperate charges and are pending, according to court records.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said that until Shepherd’s arrest, federal prosecutors did not know he had any outstanding warrants.

“When we found this out, we brought this to the attention of the court,” Letten said.

A minute entry filed in the federal court record shows that a federal prosecutor filed two documents under seal before the judge ordered Shepherd to be remanded into custody.

The Sturgis woman who prosecutors say was arrested with a blood-alcohol level almost nine times the legal driving limit, has pleaded not guilty in Sturgis to driving under the influence.

Marguerite Engle, 45, entered the plea Tuesday in Meade County Magistrate Court in Sturgis. Engle was arrested Dec. 1 when she was found passed out behind the wheel of a stolen delivery van along Interstate 90.

Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal said Wednesday that other charges against Engle will be presented to a grand jury on Thursday, Jan. 14. Those include driving under the influence, misdemeanor marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and not having a valid driver’s license.

Sondreal earlier said Engle had a blood-alcohol level of .708 percent, possibly a state record, when she was found behind the wheel of the vehicle parked on I-90.

A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper discovered Engle passed out behind the wheel of a delivery truck reported stolen from Rapid City.

Her blood-alcohol level was almost nine times South Dakota’s legal limit of .08 percent.

Engle’s reading may be the highest ever recorded in South Dakota, Sondreal said.

Sondreal said a state chemist recalled a sample that tested .53, but nothing higher, in his more than 30 years on the job.

Dr. Robert Looyenga, who recently retired from the Rapid City Police Department’s forensic laboratory, told Sondreal that the highest blood-alcohol sample he tested measured .56 percent.

Sondreal’s research indicates that a blood-alcohol level of .40 is considered a lethal dose for about 50 percent of the population.

“Engle’s was almost double that,” Sondreal said.

After she was found, Engle was hospitalized and freed on bond.

She failed to appear in court on Dec. 15, but Sturgis police located her Jan. 4 in another stolen car sitting in a ditch along S.D. Highway 34 near Fort Meade.

Engle was arrested for second offense driving under the influence and taken to jail. She is being held without bond.

Sondreal said Engle has been living in a hotel after recently moving here from Minnesota.

Engle is most likely facing charges in Pennington County since both vehicles were stolen in Rapid City, Sondreal said.

Prosecutors have dropped a criminal case against an investigator for the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office, months after a dramatic court hearing in which she was led away in handcuffs and accused of kidnapping the alleged victims in a child rape case in order to get an interview.

Emily Beasley, 22, was facing a simple kidnapping charge and a contempt of court conviction on July 15. But by Dec. 16, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office refused charges after all.

“Cooler heads prevailed, ” said Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton. “She was doing her job. Emily continues to work for us and she has been fully reinstated.”

Judge Frank Marullo had earlier dismissed the contempt of court charge against Beasley for speaking with the two girls at the center of the rape case outside their home.

Troy Harris, 40, is due to stand trial on aggravated rape, kidnapping and indecent behavior with a juvenile under age 13 on Feb. 24 at Criminal District Court. He remains jailed without bond.

Harris is accused of raping a 12-year-old girl two years ago while her younger sister watched.

Beasley visited the two girls on July 9 after their mother told the defenders office not to speak to her or her children, the mother testified in July.

Beasley spent at least one hour talking to the girls on the steps of a church across the street from their apartment building, prosecutors said.

What prosecutors and Marullo called a violation of Louisiana law protecting victims of crime, the public defenders program called fair representation of indigent defendants that the New Orleans system hadn’t seen since Hurricane Katrina dismantled the office and a new wave of defense lawyers arrived.

If convicted of the rape charge, Harris will receive mandatory life in prison.

Two months after the July hearing, public defender Kendall Green, who was found in contempt of court in the matter but by September the case was reversed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, withdrew his office from representing Harris.

Marullo appointed Arthur “Buddy” Lemann III to defend Harris.

“Passions run high when children are involved, ” Bunton said, explaining the initial kidnapping arrest for Beasley. “The right call was made.”