Louisiana Voice

Tracy Hebert just wants to know exactly what happened on Prien Lake that fateful day. After all, it’s been 19 years since her son was killed in a boating accident there.

Questions also remain unanswered as to why then-Sheriff Tony Mancuso told Mrs. Hebert that the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) worked the accident and the sheriff’s office was not at the scene when two separate documents obtained by LouisianaVoice clearly indicate that “several Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Marine units [were] on the scene as well”?

And why did toxicology results reported on July 14 on the victim, 20-year-old Derek Hebert, show traces of cocaine in his system but results on the operator of one of the boats, the son of a prominent Calcasieu Parish attorney who at the time was involved in a campaign for district attorney, were never revealed?

Allie Torres still wonders why officials attempted to place her ex-husband as the driver of one of the boats involved in the accident on May 7, 2005, when he wasn’t even there and was later shot dead by sheriff’s deputies.

Derek Hebert was killed when two boats collided, throwing him into the water where officials said he was struck by a boat propeller. He was with a group of young people who were preparing to celebrate the annual Contraband Days Festival in Lake Charles.

While all the questions deserve answers that have never been forthcoming, the last one is perhaps the most curious of all.

Why would officials place Michael Torres at the scene when his then-wife continues to insist that he was not at the lake, but at his mother’s home at the time? And why did Dan Vamvoras text Allie Torres after the accident to say that he wanted to see that Michael was “taken care of.” He sent several texts, she said, but she did not reply.

Dan Vamvoras was operating one of the boats and his father is Glen Vamvoras, the owner of the boat. The elder Vamvoras was in the middle of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for election as district attorney for the 14^th Judicial District when Hebert was killed.

Why Torres agreed to admit to being the driver of one of the boats remains a mystery but later, when he was later arrested for DUI, he called upon Glen Vamvoras to make the charges go away, telling Vamvoras, “I committed perjury for you. You owe me,” Allie Torres said.

By June 2020, Michael and Allie Torres were no longer married. On June 20, he appeared at their former home intoxicated and she called the sheriff’s office. Deputies responded, there was a confrontation and deputies shot Michael Torres.

Mrs. Hebert said she attempted to no avail to obtain a copy of the accident report. She said one LDWF agent who was at the scene told her he had never seen such negligence as he did that day.

Moreover, she said she later received an anonymous envelope with 148 photographs, photos she said she’d previously been denied, which she claims “clearly determines he was not struck by a propeller.”

Strangest of all was the settlement Mrs. Hebert received. “My lawyer told me [the settlement] was our only option,” she wrote in an email. “He said that both boats hit my son and we don’t know which one killed him, so we couldn’t hold anybody accountable.”

A retired attorney told LouisianaVoice, “If the attorney advised plaintiff did not have a case because two boats hit at the same time, then he is an idiot. It’s the finder of facts (a jury, if there is one) job to assign percentage of blame to everyone involved. If it’s a tangled mess that has not clear facts, it’s the attorney’s job to come up with a narrative to convince the finder of fact.”