Board examines salary of janitor paid $70,000

Board examines salaryof janitor paid $70,000
NEW ORLEANS -- A school janitor earned more than $70,000 last year -- more than any other principal in the system. And his son happens to be the schools chief.
The Orleans Parish School Board said it will ask an independent investigator to examine the pay of Alphonse Davis, 70, who made $38,754 in overtime last year. His base salary was $27,738.
At time-and-a-half, Davis would have worked about 1,850 hours over and above his regular 73/4-hour days. That would amount to an average of about 35 hours of overtime each week. With vacation, holiday and other pay added in, he made $70,691.
Alphonse Davis, the schools chief who shares the same name as his father, said Monday that he did nothing wrong and was not aware of his father's earnings, which grew substantially after the younger Davis took over the school system in 1999.
"I'm a believer in my father's integrity," Davis said. "It's entirely probable that he worked all these hours. He's a hard worker."
Davis said he will have chief operating officer Roger Reese review his father's pay.
The janitor has been with the school system for 40 years, and is now the head custodian at George Washington Carver High School.
Christmas servicesto go on at cathedral
NEW YORK -- Damage from a fire that broke out in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine won't keep the famed century-old church from conducting Christmas services, a bishop said.
The blaze destroyed a gift shop on Tuesday inside the cathedral, one of the largest churches in the world. It also severely damaged two 17th century tapestries and left the floor of the nave with smoke and water damage. As much as 3 inches of water covered the floor of the nave.
Bishop Mark Sisk said Tuesday that worshippers can count on Christmas services. But a spokesman for St. John, the principal church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, announced that at least two upcoming events had been moved.
A concert on Thursday called "A Cathedral Christmas" and a Friday performance of Handel's "Messiah" will be moved from the cathedral to an auditorium on cathedral grounds, according to the spokesman, Jere Farrah. The fate of other church events remained unclear.
Witness: Sheriff talkedabout killing successor
DECATUR, Ga. -- In the days after losing his re-election bid, DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey met with a then-deputy 25 to 30 times as he plotted a hit on the sheriff-elect and discussed how he would provide four hit men with a reward, the deputy testified.
Patrick Cuffy offered the testimony Tuesday at a probable cause hearing for Dorsey, who has been accused of involvement in the shooting death of Derwin Brown. At the hearing, a judge determined there was enough evidence to order a grand jury investigation into whether Dorsey played a role in the killing.
Dorsey is already charged with murder, but the grand jury could bring a formal indictment.
Testifying under an immunity deal with prosecutors, Cuffy, who is no longer a deputy, said he met with Dorsey more than two dozen times to discuss plans for the killing. He said the sheriff wanted to make sure he was in a public place when it took place.
Brown was shot to death in his driveway on Dec. 15, 2000, after a campaign in which he pledged to clean up corruption in the sheriff's office. He also planned to fire 38 employees, many of them hired by Dorsey.
Case goes to jury
WHEATON, Ill. -- Jurors have begun deliberating the murder case against a 44-year-old woman accused of smothering her three young children after tucking them into bed.
Defense attorney Jack Donahue on Tuesday referred to the children as three angels and called the 1999 killings "despicable and monstrous acts." But he asked jurors to concentrate on Marilyn Lemak's state of mind.
Standing over Lemak, who had her head down and appeared to be trembling slightly, the attorney said: "Marilyn Lemak, as she sits there, remains trapped in the wreckage of her own mind."
Prosecutors say Lemak knew what she was doing when she killed Thomas, 3, Emily, 6, and Nicholas, 7. They say she wanted to punish her physician husband, David, over their pending divorce and because he had started seeing another woman.
Authorities say Lemak fed her children peanut butter laced with her anti-anxiety medication, tucked them into bed, sang them a lullaby and then smothered them with her bare hands.
Associated Press