NEW ORLEANS, June 20 (UPI) -- A New Orleans grand jury probing the deaths of hospital patients after Hurricane Katrina has reportedly offered immunity to two accused nurses for testimony.
Sources told CNN nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were made the offer and are expected to testify within two weeks. They and Dr. Anna Pou were charged with second-degree murder in July 2006, 10 months after the storm devastated the city.
The three worked at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center and Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti alleges as many as nine people were euthanized with injections after electricity failed and conditions in the hospital became brutal.
However, the charges are for four deaths of patients, aged 63, 68, 91 and 93, the report said.
Families of the dead allege the medical staff was trying to expedite their own evacuation by eliminating patients, while lawyers for the accused women said their clients acted heroically, staying to treat patients rather than evacuating.
