Flood of Lies: The St. Rita's Nursing Home Tragedy - Paperback
by James Cobb (Author)
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS BEST REGIONAL NONFICTION OF THE SOUTH GOLD MEDAL
"When an elderly couple is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of thirty-five bed-ridden residents of St. Rita's Nursing Home, an emotional edge-of-your-seat thriller takes off like a shot! The players: a wily and profane defense lawyer, a ferocious prosecutor, vengeful families of the victims, and a ravenous media that brands the defendants 'Monsters of Hurricane Katrina.' My advice--block out enough time to read this wonderful book in one sitting."
--John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
"A passionate and personal book, artfully constructed."
--Washington Post
"A war story of jurisprudence. . . . a book you wish wouldn't end."
--Daily Beast
Front Jacket
Flood of Lies, Cobb takes us deep inside a horrific personal and professional journey. . . . a tale of personal sacrifice that often pitted responsibility to family against professional duty. Flood of Lies is one of those rare books that takes us behind the scenes of a gut-wrenching, international story. . . . It is a great . . . story of personal and professional triumph."Richard Angelico, retired WDSU investigative reporter
In the media storm that followed Hurricane Katrina, one gruesome story captivated a horrified nation: thirty-five elderly residents of St. Rita's Nursing Home drowned when a wall of water hit the home like a bomb. Rumors abounded that owners Sal and Mabel Mangano tied residents to their beds and left them to drown, then bloat and rot in the Louisiana heat. News reporters and talk-show hosts spewed a constant stream of sensationalized reports based on incomplete information and hearsay. Almost no one believed that the Manganos could be innocent.
Louisiana lawyer James A. Cobb, Jr., had made his career out of defending deep-pocketed corporate clients, easing his troubled conscience with martinis. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Cobb and his family lost everything. Amid the ruins, Cobb met the Manganos and was convinced not only of their innocence but also of their selflessness and courage on that fateful August day when they, too, lost everything. Cobb agreed to defend the Manganos against near-insurmountable odds. His decision was the start of an inner journey toward self-realization.
In this true story of a family blamed for the wrongs of the government that prosecuted them, Cobb finds unexpected heroism, unrewarded devotion, and personal redemption.
A trial lawyer since 1978, James A. Cobb, Jr., is a native New Orleanian. He graduated with honors from Tulane University Law School, and has since tried more than 130 cases to verdict across the Gulf South. Cobb has been a respected professor at Tulane Law School's trial advocacy program for more than thirty years and is a two-time recipient of the Monte M. Lemann Distinguished Teaching Award. He has been a visiting professor at many institutions, including Harvard Law School. He is a member of the bar in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida.
Cobb earned widespread recognition after his involvement in the 1985 case against then-governor Edwin Edwards regarding nursing home approvals. Cobb lives with his family in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Back Jacket
"When an elderly couple is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of thirty-five bed-ridden residents of St. Rita's Nursing Home, an emotional edge-of-your-seat thriller takes off like a shot! The players: a wily and profane defense lawyer, a ferocious prosecutor, vengeful families of the victims, and a ravenous media that brands the defendants 'Monsters of Hurricane Katrina.' My advice--block out enough time to read this wonderful book in one sitting."
--John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
"In Flood of Lies Cobb--a profane, hard-drinking New Orleans resident with a racy prose style--tells the story of what happened as he and his partners prepared to defend the Manganos in court. . . . While Cobb is hardly a disinterested narrator, he is an irresistible one. . . . Flood of Lies isn't an example of objective reporting; it is a passionate and personal book, artfully constructed to maximize suspense, and carried along by the compelling narrative voice of Cobb. Above all, it reminds us of how messy and imperfect are the processes of law, how chancy are the outcomes of trials, how outrageously costly, both financially and emotionally, the pursuit of justice can be."
--Michael Dirda, the Washington Post
"Cobb's kaleidoscopic personality drives the momentum in what amounts to a war story of jurisprudence. . . . With Cobb's pugilistic legal tactics high-octane personality for plot fuel, Flood of Lies becomes a book you wish wouldn't end."
--Jason Berry, the Daily Beast
"This is more than a story about Katrina. It is that, told from an original perspective, but it's also a story of abuse of power, of political ambition, of survival, and of a trying to make life ordinary again--when ordinariness amounts to triumph."
--John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
"What Jim Cobb captures better than any writer I've read is how deeply the media's pre-trial feeding-frenzy shaped public perceptions about the St. Rita's nursing home tragedy. . . . Cobb's brash, brilliant storytelling takes you behind the scenes of an important test for the American system of justice."
--Ken Bode, former national political correspondent, NBC News
Front-jacket photograph (c) CARLOS BARRIA/Corbis
Author Biography
James A. Cobb is a lawyer and lecturer well known for his role as the defense attorney in the case State of Louisiana vs. Salvador and Mabel Mangano. He grew up in New Orleans and remained in the city to earn both his bachelor of arts and his law degree from Tulane University. After graduating, Cobb practiced law in Louisiana and became a managing partner at the firm Emmett, Cobb, Waits & Henning. Concerned about the quality of healthcare in nursing homes and hospitals, Cobb was essential in challenging Gov. Edwin Edwards's approval of unfit facilities during the hospital certification scandal. Although the governor was acquitted, the case raised public awareness about the need for quality treatment and adequate healthcare options for the elderly. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the deaths of thirty-five senior citizens at the St. Rita's Nursing Home became the center of a media frenzy. The owners of the nursing home, Sal and Mabel Mangano, were charged with negligence, cruelty to the elderly, and homicide. As their defense attorney, Cobb successfully proved that the Manganos had not intentionally risked the lives of their patients when they decided not to evacuate. Cobb's defense gained a complete acquittal for the Manganos. In addition to his law practice, Cobb has served as an adjunct professor at Tulane University Law School, focusing his lectures mainly on healthcare law. He is the director for the Tulane University Trial Advocacy Program and has taught trial advocacy at many universities, including Southern Methodist University and San Diego State University. He also presents a weeklong trial-advocacy seminar at Harvard University every year. For Cobb's work as a lecturer, he has received the Tulane University Teaching Award and the Monte M. Lemann Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2007, the Louisiana Nursing Home Association presented him with the Better Life Award for his work improving the lives of the elderly in nursing homes. Cobb lives in New Orleans with his wife and two children.