AROUND THE STATE: Louisiana teacher salaries lag other states in the South

Louisiana's average teacher salary lags

Louisiana teachers are behind most of the states in the South in average salary.

Statewide, teachers were paid an average of $51,600 for the 2019-20 school year.

Louisiana ranked 12th among the 16 states in the southern region of the United States.

The national average is $64,000.

Woman found guilty of aggravated rape, video voyeurism

A Livingston Parish jury returned a guilty verdict Dec. 3 against a woman who was accused of helping a man rape and record video of an unconscious victim.

Melanie Curtin, 42, faces a life sentence in prison for the felony conviction on the charges of aggravated rape and video voyeurism.

Prosecutors showed the jury a 17-minute video from 2014 of Curtin and the man, a former Livingston Parish Sheriff's deputy, raping the victim.

The former deputy, Dennis Perkins, along with his ex-wife Cynthia, will face a combined 150 charges. Some of the crimes involve alleged rape and production of child pornography.

Police: Millions worth of drugs found

Louisiana State Police reported the arrest of a Texas man after some $2.2 million in suspected methamphetamine was discovered after a traffic stop in St. Tammany Parish.

Ricardo Guevara, 47, was stopped Dec. 1 along Interstate 12.

Over a 30-day period, troopers reported seizing more than $6 million in illegal narcotics during numerous unrelated traffic stops.