EX-TROOPER WHO SOLD GHB BEGINS HOME DETENTION

NEW ORLEANS - A former Louisiana State Police trooper has begun serving six
months of home detention for selling more than 2 pounds of the "date-rape
drug" GHB.

Richard L. Richardson Jr. of New Orleans was a state trooper when, on Aug.
21, he sold slightly less than 2.2 pounds of gamma hydroxybutyric acid to
what federal prosecutors described as a "cooperating individual" for $145.

Richardson, who became a trooper at Troop B in New Orleans in February
2001, resigned with no stated reason Aug. 24. State Police had not told
Richardson he was under investigation, Lt. Mike Edmonson has said.

A federal grand jury in New Orleans indicted the 26-year-old Richardson in
September, and he pleaded guilty to GHB distribution the following month.

In addition to putting him under U.S. Probation Office-supervised home
detention effective Feb. 6, U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon put
Richardson on probation for five years and fined him $1,000 last month.

Lemmon initially ordered Richardson to spend six months of nights at a New
Orleans halfway house - the Volunteers of America Comprehensive Sanction
Center. But after he was sentenced, Richardson learned his girlfriend was
carrying their child, so he asked the judge to convert the halfway house
time to an equal amount of time in home detention so he could "lend his
support and assistance" during the pregnancy.

Lemmon granted Richardson's request but said he must foot the cost of the
supervised home confinement.

GHB is sometimes slipped into the drinks of women who are then sexually
assaulted, according to authorities.

A special anti-drug task force of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
Louisiana State Police and New Orleans Police Department turned up
Richardson's drug activities, Edmonson and U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.