Scientific Dictatorship

All five officers found guilty in the Danziger Bridge trial

Examiner

After almost three days of deliberating, the jury in Danziger Bridge trial found all five officers guilty on all 25 counts. Though the officers were able to escape murder charges for Ronald Madison and James Brissette, the verdict is still an overwhelming rejection of the defense these officers put up and a major victory for the prosecution, the victims and their families.

Four NOPD officers were on trial for unjustly killing two unarmed people and wounding four others on the Danziger Bridge six days after Hurricane Katrina. They, along with a fifth officer, were also being charged for their roles in the cover-up that followed. The defense had always maintained that the officers were innocent and that they had every reason to believe the victims were armed. Their lawyers constantly referred to the shootings as justified. Today, the jury disagreed with them...[Full Article]

Labels: Danziger Bridge, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Two New Orleans cops sentenced in Katrina slaying

Raw Story

CHICAGO – Two New Orleans police officers convicted of shooting and burning a man in the 2005 post-Hurricane Katrina chaos were sentenced to 25 and 17 years in jail for their crimes, officials said Thursday.

They were two of three police officers convicted in December in the September 2, 2005 slaying which was not investigated until early 2009 -- shortly after a high-profile media report.

Former NOPD Officer Warren was sentenced to 25 years for shooting a fleeing Henry Glover, 31, from the balcony of a police station.

Glover's brother and a friend flagged down a passing motorist, who put the mortally wounded man in his car to try to get medical attention for him.

When the men drove up to a makeshift police station seeing help, the police officers surrounded them at gunpoint, handcuffed them and let Glover die in the back seat of the car.

Greg McRae, who maintains his position with the department, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for driving off with the car, with Glover's body inside, and burning both the body and the car with a traffic flare...[Full Article]

Labels: Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, New Orleans, police

Ex-NOLA cop gets 3 years for cover-up of Danziger Bridge shootings

Former New Orleans Police Officer Jeffrey Lehrmann was sentenced Wednesday to three years in federal prison for his part in the cover-up of the Danziger Bridge shootings, our partners at the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported today.

Lehrmann is one of 11 officers who have been charged in the Sept. 4, 2005 incident, in which police officers opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing two and wounding four others. He was the first of five officers to cooperate with federal investigators...

[Full Article]

Labels: Danziger Bridge, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, New Orleans, police

Two New Orleans police officers indicted in 2005 beating death

Washington (CNN) -- Two officers in the troubled New Orleans Police Department have been indicted in connection with the beating death of a civilian in 2005, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The federal indictment alleges that Officer Melvin Williams kicked the victim and struck him with a baton, fracturing his ribs and rupturing his spleen. The victim, Raymond Robair, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Williams and Officer Matthew Moore were also charged with obstructing justice when they submitted a false incident report and failed to tell hospital personnel Williams had beaten Robair, according to the indictment in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Details of the indictment were released by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington.

Moore also allegedly lied about the incident in an FBI investigation in March of this year according to the indictment. Moore is accused of telling federal agents Williams had not kicked or beaten Robair.

Robair's death occurred in July 2005, two months before the city was slammed by Hurricane Katrina...

[Full Article]

Labels: Louisiana, New Orleans, police

3 New Orleans police officers to be arraigned in deadly shootings after Hurricane Katrina

NEW ORLEANS

Three current or former New Orleans police officers will be arraigned on charges they conspired to cover up deadly shootings of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina.

Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, who investigated the shootings, face federal charges including obstruction of justice. The indictment claims former officer Robert Faulcon shot Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, in the back as he ran away on the Danziger Bridge.

All three have initial court appearances scheduled for Tuesday.

Five former officers have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up of the shootings that killed two people and wounded four others less than a week after the 2005 storm. Three other officers have pleaded not guilty.

Labels: New Orleans, police

Police Are Charged in Post-Katrina Shootings

NEW ORLEANS — Four current and two former New Orleans police officers have been charged in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, federal law enforcement officials announced here on Tuesday.

Four of the men — former Officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso — were charged with federal civil rights violations in the killing of 17-year-old James Brissette and the wounding of four others, all members of the same family, when the officers came across a group on the bridge in eastern New Orleans and opened fire.

In addition, Mr. Faulcon, who was arrested Tuesday morning by F.B.I. agents in Fresno, Tex., was charged with shooting Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, in the back, killing him, as he tried to flee.

All four of the men could face the death penalty.

The Danziger case is the most high-profile of at least eight incidents involving New Orleans police officers that are being actively investigated by federal law enforcement officials. The case became a flash point, in the city and throughout the nation, a symbol of the violence, disorder and official ineptitude in the storm’s wake.

In particular, it shined a spotlight on New Orleans’s long-troubled Police Department, the target of a major corruption investigation in the 1990s. Two former officers are sitting on death row.

In May, at the formal invitation of the city’s newly inaugurated mayor, Mitch Landrieu, Justice Department officials announced they were conducting a full review of the Police Department, a process that often ends in a consent decree, a legally binding agreement for systemic reform.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who spoke at a news conference here on Tuesday, put the indictment in that context.

“It will take more than this investigation to renew the New Orleans Police Department and to allow it to thrive,” Mr. Holder said, adding later, “We want to look at this in a holistic way.”

The four men who were charged with killing Mr. Brissette are in custody, federal officials said, who added that the investigation was continuing. The three officers have been suspended without pay, a police spokesman said.

Two other men charged on Tuesday — one an officer and the other a recent retiree — received summonses, said a spokeswoman for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

“We’ve known it was coming for at least six months and suspected it was coming for a year,” said Frank DeSalvo, a lawyer for Sergeant Bowen. “It’s not a shock. We’re ready.”

Eric Hessler, a lawyer who represents Sergeant Gisevius, said federal officials should have considered the chaos that the police were operating in during the first few days after Hurricane Katrina.

“The federal government has clearly forgotten or chosen to ignore the circumstances police officers were working under and clearly chose not to factor in any of those circumstances when they decided to charge them with an intentional act of murder,” Mr. Hessler said in an interview.

Lawyers for the other men who were indicted could not be reached or did not return calls seeking comment.

Starting in February, police officers, often one at a time, began to plead guilty to lesser charges like conspiring to obstruct justice in the Danziger case; five former officers and a civilian have done so to date.

The 27-count indictment handed up by a grand jury on Monday paints a harrowing picture of the events on the Danziger Bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, when much of the city was still underwater.

The details of the shootings on the bridge that began to emerge, and which were elaborated on in the indictment unsealed Tuesday, were ghastlier than many in the city had expected.

Responding to a call that the police were under fire, officers drove to the bridge over the Industrial Canal in eastern New Orleans in a Budget rental truck. Some were armed with assault rifles, others with a shotgun or a semiautomatic pistol.

Mr. Brissette and five members of the Bartholomew family were walking across the bridge to get food and other supplies from a supermarket, the indictment reads, when the officers opened fire. Four members of the Bartholomew family were shot. Susan Bartholomew, at the time 38, lost part of her arm; her husband, Leonard Bartholomew III, was shot in the head. Mr. Brissette, who was killed, was shot seven times.

Some officers then traveled to the other side of the bridge and found two brothers, Ronald and Lance Madison, who were on their way to check on a dentist’s office that belonged to their oldest brother, Dr. Romell Madison. According to the indictment, Mr. Faulcon then shot Ronald Madison to death with a shotgun. Afterward, it continues, Sergeant Bowen kicked and stomped on Mr. Madison as he lay dying on the ground...

[Full Article]

Labels: charges, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, Louisiana, murder, New Orleans

Judge In Danziger Case Sickened By 'Raw Brutality Of The Shooting And The Craven Lawlessness Of The Cover-up'

A New Orleans police officer who fired his gun at civilians on the Danziger Bridge a week after Hurricane Katrina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, offering a chilling account of what transpired on the bridge that early September day in 2005.

Michael Hunter, 33, became the first officer who actually participated in the shooting to enter a guilty plea. Two investigators have already confessed to playing roles in a wide-ranging cover-up of the police shooting, which injured four unarmed civilians and left two men dead.

Hunter, who resigned last week after he was charged in federal court, contends that fellow officers shot at people they should have seen were unarmed. The account of events Hunter signed Thursday afternoon, called a factual basis, provides the most specific details to date about officers' actions on the bridge, which spans the Industrial Canal at Chef Menteur Highway...

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Police Shot Unarmed Civilians After Katrina, Officer Testifies

Federal prosecutors have accused New Orleans police of shooting unarmed civilians on the city's Danzinger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina -- and then trying to cover up the incident. One officer has already entered a guilty plea, and yesterday, he spelled out what he said happened. From the Times-Picayune:

Hunter, 33, said a New Orleans police sergeant fired an assault rifle at wounded civilians at close range after other officers stopped shooting and after it was clear that the police were not taking fire. He also says he saw another officer in a car fire a shotgun at a fleeing man's back, although the man did nothing suggesting he was a threat to police.

That man, the Times-Picayune says, was severely mentally disabled, and he died as a result of the shooting, one of two who were killed. Four others were wounded. The attorneys for the accused police say they didn't do anything wrong and, if anything, feel more confident about their case after this latest development -- though they're not saying why...

Labels: Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, New Orleans