New trial ordered for ex-officers in post-Katrina killings
By AP Wire Service on Sep 18, 2013, at 2:26 AM Updated on 9/18/13 at 5:15 AM
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
In a 129-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt said at least three government attorneys posted anonymous comments on a New Orleans newspaper's website, creating a "carnival atmosphere" that "distorted and perverted" justice in the case.
Less than a week after Katrina's 2005 landfall, police shot and killed two unarmed people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge. Five former officers cooperated with a Justice Department investigation and pleaded guilty to engaging in a cover-up to make the shootings appear justified.
After a jury convicted five other former officers in 2011, their attorneys argued that prosecutors' online comments and leaks to news organizations were part of a "secret public relations campaign" that deprived their clients of a fair trial.
Engelhardt granted their request for a new trial, though he called it a "bitter pill to swallow."
Former police Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius and former officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon had been convicted of charges related to the shooting and cover-up. Retired Sgt. Arthur "Archie" Kaufman, who was assigned by the Police Department to investigate the case, wasn't charged in the shootings but was convicted of orchestrating the cover-up. Engelhardt sentenced them to prison terms that ranged from six to 65 years. All five are serving those sentences.
Prosecutors said Faulcon fatally shot Ronald Madison, 40, a mentally disabled man, in the back on the west side of the bridge as he and his brother ran away from the gunfire on the east side of the bridge, where 17-year-old James Brissette had been shot and killed by police.
Former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten resigned in December 2012 after two of his top deputies - Sal Perricone and Jan Mann - acknowledgeded they had posted anonymous comments on
nola.com.
Original Print Headline: New trial ordered for ex-officers in killings
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
