Now-fired deputy's arrest warrant was mysteriously pulled after deadly crash

BATON ROUGE - Policy changes are coming at the 19th Judicial Courthouse after a West Baton Rouge Parish deputy wasn't arrested on an outstanding warrant that was in place since November of 2018. Casco was fired late Tuesday after relentless reporting by the WBRZ Investigative Unit.



Alberto Casco killed Clyde Robertson on Friday morning as he drove a work-release van on LA 1. Casco had a suspended license and had an active bench warrant at the time of the crash.



Tuesday, the WBRZ Investigative Unit learned Casco's arrest warrant got pulled after a phone call was made by the internal affairs investigator for Casco's employer, the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. After waiting almost two hours inside the East Baton Rouge courthouse, officials told the WBRZ Investigative Unit it was Kenneth Young of WBRSO who made that phone call Friday.



Casco skipped out on a court date back in November. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest and had not been cleared until after the deadly crash last week.



"His driving record indicates that he did not appear as was indicated on the ticket. And that's a good indication and is routine that a bench warrant is issued, and that would be a good indication that there would be one active at the time," East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said.



The West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office denied that anyone asked to have Casco's warrant pulled. But, that goes against what East Baton Rouge Courthouse officials told WBRZ as they kept good records of who called and why the warrant was recalled. West Baton Rouge acknowledged the phone call but said they never asked to pull the warrant.



Policies at the 19th JDC were changed immediately. Now, arrest warrants won't be pulled over the phone unless a defendant appears in court or their attorney is involved.



EBR court officials said Casco should have been arrested Friday as traffic court was not in session for him to clear his arrest warrant.



