Quick Summary: Grand Jury Targets Baton Rouge Officials in Kickback Scheme
On September 28, WAFB reported that Louisiana auditors flagged $345 million in disaster reimbursement paperwork exceptions at GOHSEP, with auditors saying 19% of claims carried missing receipts or contractor paperwork.
Taken together, the most compelling thing about “9News at 10 – WAFB” right now is that its liveliest reporting is not anchored by one viral moment, but by two deepening power stories — one inside Baton Rouge government, one inside the Catholic Church — both now at stages where outside authorities, not just local players, are deciding what comes next.
In one of the station’s standout reports, Chris Nakamoto and Kevin Foster said three East Baton Rouge Metro Council members — Jenn Racca, Denise Amoroso, and Brandon Noel — were subpoenaed to testify before a special grand jury.
9News 10 is at the center of this developing story, and the following analysis explains what matters most right now.
The station’s broader news file over the last several days adds more hard-edged specifics that make its current 9News at 10 output feel unusually accountability-heavy.
Those are not just filler crime briefs; they help explain the editorial mix of the current 9News at 10, where the station is pairing high-level institutional investigations with fast-moving public-safety coverage that delivers immediate, local consequence.
9News 10 is at the center of this developing story, and the following analysis explains what matters most right now. Baton Rouge is at the center of this development.
Own work. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The sharpest new development tied to WAFB’s current 9News at 10 coverage is not a routine nightly roundup but an aggressive run of Baton Rouge accountability reporting, led by an I-TEAM investigation now escalated all the way to the Vatican after the Diocese of Baton Rouge’s handling of misconduct allegations against Father Charbel Jamhoury was formally forwarded on September 22 to the Dicastery for Bishops. That church investigation stands out because it marks a clear institutional escalation: WAFB reported that New Orleans Archbishop Checchio confirmed the Diocese of Baton Rouge probe had been completed and sent to Rome, a sign that the matter has moved beyond local review and into the Catholic Church’s highest disciplinary channels. The core conflict is whether Bishop Michael Duca and diocesan leadership properly handled accusations involving Jamhoury, who had already been removed from ministry, stripped of safe-environment credentials, and barred from further public ministry after allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with an adult male surfaced. What makes the latest reporting newsworthy is the shift from allegation and local inquiry to formal Vatican consideration, which raises the stakes for Duca and the diocese. WAFB’s recent I-TEAM slate also shows that its most consequential late-news reporting is increasingly centered on public corruption in Baton Rouge, especially the attorney general’s expanding city-parish probe. In one of the station’s standout reports, Chris Nakamoto and Kevin Foster said three East Baton Rouge Metro Council members — Jenn Racca, Denise Amoroso, and Brandon Noel — were subpoenaed to testify before a special grand jury. WAFB reported those three spent about two hours inside the Louisiana Department of Justice building, and the case is already far beyond a preliminary review: the attorney general’s office and the special grand jury have charged eight people since December, including Councilman Cleve Dunn and former top aide Courtney Scott, who are accused of taking kickbacks tied to public contracts. The political tension here is no longer just whether wrongdoing happened under former Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration, but how much wider the dragnet will spread and whether current officeholders face deeper exposure. WAFB reported that five other council members had already been subpoenaed earlier, underscoring that this is a rolling, multi-wave investigation rather than a one-off event. One councilman told the station he was “happy to assist” in the probe, a phrase that captures the public posture elected officials are trying to maintain while investigators continue hauling witnesses before the grand jury. The debate driving this coverage is whether this is a targeted clean-up of alleged contracting abuse or evidence of a broader culture of patronage and kickbacks inside city-parish government. The station’s broader news file over the last several days adds more hard-edged specifics that make its current 9News at 10 output feel unusually accountability-heavy. On September 28, WAFB reported that Louisiana auditors flagged $345 million in disaster reimbursement paperwork exceptions at GOHSEP, with auditors saying 19% of claims carried missing receipts or contractor paperwork. State officials pushed back by stressing that most issues are resolved before funds are paid, but the number itself — $345 million — gives the story punch, and it feeds directly into a larger Louisiana argument over government competence, documentation, and public trust in spending oversight. That same September 28 news cycle also included a series of sharp local stories with concrete figures: WAFB reported one person dead and eight injured in a nine-vehicle crash on North Foster Drive, and separately reported that three Southeastern students, ages 19, 20, and 21, were killed near Ponchatoula when their vehicle hit a concrete support column. Those are not just filler crime briefs; they help explain the editorial mix of the current 9News at 10, where the station is pairing high-level institutional investigations with fast-moving public-safety coverage that delivers immediate, local consequence. There is also a notable technological and legal twist in WAFB’s recent reporting that could attract wider attention beyond Baton Rouge: the station highlighted a Louisiana felony case involving a man accused of creating sexually explicit AI deepfakes of a coworker and showing them to her. That story matters because it folds a local criminal case into a much larger national argument over how quickly the law is trying to catch up to generative AI abuse. It gives WAFB a hook that is both highly local and instantly recognizable as part of a broader cultural and legal fight. What happens next in the biggest story is now fairly clear even if the outcome is not: in the church case, the next major decision point is whatever action, if any, comes from the Dicastery for Bishops after reviewing the Baton Rouge file sent on September 22. In the corruption case, the pressure point is the continuing special grand jury process, which has already produced eight charges and multiple subpoenas and could yield more indictments, motions to quash, or recusal fights in the weeks ahead. Taken together, the most compelling thing about “9News at 10 – WAFB” right now is that its liveliest reporting is not anchored by one viral moment, but by two deepening power stories — one inside Baton Rouge government, one inside the Catholic Church — both now at stages where outside authorities, not just local players, are deciding what comes next.
On September 28, WAFB reported that Louisiana auditors flagged $345 million in disaster reimbursement paperwork exceptions at GOHSEP, with auditors saying 19% of claims carried missing receipts or contractor paperwork. Taken together, the most compelling thing about “9News at 10 – WAFB” right now is that its liveliest reporting is not anchored by one viral moment, but by two deepening power stories — one inside Baton Rouge government, one inside the Catholic Church — both now at stages where outside authorities, not just local players, are deciding what comes next.
In one of the station’s standout reports, Chris Nakamoto and Kevin Foster said three East Baton Rouge Metro Council members — Jenn Racca, Denise Amoroso, and Brandon Noel — were subpoenaed to testify before a special grand jury. The station’s broader news file over the last several days adds more hard-edged specifics that make its current 9News at 10 output feel unusually accountability-heavy.
Those are not just filler crime briefs; they help explain the editorial mix of the current 9News at 10, where the station is pairing high-level institutional investigations with fast-moving public-safety coverage that delivers immediate, local consequence. WAFB’s recent I-TEAM slate also shows that its most consequential late-news reporting is increasingly centered on public corruption in Baton Rouge, especially the attorney general’s expanding city-parish probe.
One councilman told the station he was “happy to assist” in the probe, a phrase that captures the public posture elected officials are trying to maintain while investigators continue hauling witnesses before the grand jury. In the corruption case, the pressure point is the continuing special grand jury process, which has already produced eight charges and multiple subpoenas and could yield more indictments, motions to quash, or recusal fights in the weeks ahead.
The station’s broader news file over the last several days adds more hard-edged specifics that make its current 9News at 10 output feel unusually accountability-heavy. Those are not just filler crime briefs; they help explain the editorial mix of the current 9News at 10, where the station is pairing high-level institutional investigations with fast-moving public-safety coverage that delivers immediate, local consequence.
WAFB’s recent I-TEAM slate also shows that its most consequential late-news reporting is increasingly centered on public corruption in Baton Rouge, especially the attorney general’s expanding city-parish probe. One councilman told the station he was “happy to assist” in the probe, a phrase that captures the public posture elected officials are trying to maintain while investigators continue hauling witnesses before the grand jury.
