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NOPD 2nd District

On April 26th at or about 11:50 pm, the victims left a local bar and proceeded to the 5300 block of Annunciation Street . While at that location, the victim’s were approached from behind by two black male subjects. The suspects produced a silver colored handgun and proceeded to rob the male victim of his wallet. They also robbed the female victim of her purse. The suspects fled on foot, making good their escape. Suspect #1 was described as a black male, 18-22 years, wearing a yellow shirt and gray pants. Suspect #2 was only described as a black male.

If you have any further information on this case, please contact Sgt. Shaun Ferguson or Det. Brian Baye at 658-6022 or 658-6020. You may also call Crimestoppers anonymously at 822-1111.

Remember to report any suspicious persons or activities you see in your neighborhood by calling 821-2222. In an emergency, call 911 immediately.

Major Kirk Bouyelas
Second District Commander
New Orleans Police Department

New Orleans Politics
4/26/08
The Times-Picayune

HOLD THAT THOUGHT: Fewer murders occurred in New Orleans in early 2008 than in early 2007, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley trumpeted a week ago, citing a decline of more than 8 percent as evidence that his officers are calming street violence.

But starting the very night that Riley noted the drop, the city’s killers underscored how tenuous such incremental gains can be.

From Friday night through Sunday there were six murders, starting with a 23-year-old man shot as he drove away from his girlfriend’s house on Dufossat Street and concluding just a few blocks away with a 32-year-old man killed on Upperline Street.

On Wednesday, Riley acknowledged that the spurt of slayings had erased the department’s gains. On the day of his news conference, there had been 54 murders this year compared with 59 at the same point last year. By Wednesday, the homicide tally had narrowed to 61 in 2007 versus 60 in 2008.

“We went even,” Riley said while defending his earlier press conference as an opportunity to inform New Orleans residents about progress being made by the department with homicides, drug busts and robbery arrests.

Riley cited as a sign of progress the 110 narcotics search warrants issued by the department in the first quarter of the year, which yielded more than 100 drug arrests. During the earlier press conference, Deputy Chief James Scott said the level of search warrants is a “bit of an increase” for the department.

While the number of murders crept back up to last year’s level in the past week, armed robberies declined, Riley said Wednesday. “We’re putting the right people in jail,” he said.

Former cop is named public information officer
First day on job sees triple murder
The Times-Picayune
Saturday, April 26, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy

A former New Orleans police officer and television news manager was named Friday as the head of the NOPD’s public information office, which handles requests from the news media and private citizens for documents and interviews.

Bob Young replaces Sgt. Joe Narcisse, who will move to the department’s internal investigative unit. …

Police Superintendent Warren Riley said he is “infusing the office with someone with law enforcement and news experience.”

He said Young will continue to keep up “strong relations with members of the media.”

The shift comes as the public and the media continue to clamor for more police records and information. The Times-Picayune sued the NOPD last week for failing to honor several months-old public records requests, and several citizen advocates have complained that the department doesn’t release detailed enough information on crimes and law enforcement.

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FBI chief loses post in N.O.
Talk of mayor’s race leads to transfer
The Times-Picayune
Saturday, April 26, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy

James Bernazzani, the head of New Orleans’ FBI office, a silver-maned, tough-talking, Harvard-educated, larger-than-life crimefighter sent to squash public corruption in a jurisdiction notorious for it, was reassigned to the agency’s national headquarters Friday after he publicly flirted with a run for mayor.

The abrupt transfer marks the end of Bernazzani’s three-year tenure in New Orleans, a tumultuous period during which he carved out a prominent niche as the face and voice of a very public war on corruption.

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On April, 21, 2008 at or about 10:02 am the victim was working at 4200 S. Miro St., when he was approached by an unknown black male.  The black male asked the victim if he had a cigar.  The victim advised him that he did not smoke.  The black male then began to walk away, then turned around and produced a black semi-automatic handgun from the rear pocket and said.  “Give me your money.”  The victim then gave the perpetrator his wallet and cell phone.   The suspect then fled on foot on Milan St. towards Napoleon, then unknown.  The suspect is described as black male 20-25 years old, 5’07”, wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, medium twist in his hair and clean shaven.

If you have any further information on this case, please contact Sgt. Rick Pari or Det. Gant at 658-6022 or 658-6020.  You may also call Crimestoppers anonymously at 822-1111.

Remember to report any suspicious persons or activities you see in your neighborhood by calling 821-2222. In an emergency, call 911 immediately.

Major Kirk Bouyelas Commander, 2nd Police District
New Orleans Police Department

EDITORIAL: Crime records are public
Friday, April 25, 2008

New Orleanians have found it very hard since Hurricane Katrina to get public information from the city’s Police Department — and that needs to change.

Residents, City Council members and civic and neighborhood groups concerned about crime — including this newspaper — have advocated for access to crime data that the department is legally required to provide.

But despite the public’s pleas and multiple efforts to work with the Police Department, Superintendent Warren Riley’s department has failed to give residents prompt and effective access to crime information.

“We can’t do some ‘pie-in-the-sky, give the citizens more information,’ ” is how Sgt. Joe Narcisse, a Police Department spokesman, put it in an interview last spring. That was after City Council members grilled police officials for not releasing timely and user-friendly data.

Unfortunately, Sgt. Narcisse’s statement seems to still embody the department’s thinking.

After months seeking some crime records, The Times-Picayune last week filed a lawsuit against the Police Department alleging that the department failed to provide public information sought in six written requests between Dec. 18 and March 4. The law requires public records to be made available for inspection within three days after a request is made.

The newspaper’s requests sought crime figures by police district, weekly reports produced in each district listing the location of various crimes, a homicide log and arrest statistics, among other information.

The suit also challenges the department’s policy that police reports become public records only after they are “finalized” — a process that can take weeks. Civil District Judge Kern Reese has set a hearing for May 23.

State law requires the prompt release of initial incident reports with information such as time and location, name of anyone arrested and a narrative description of the alleged offense. The courts should not let the Police Department get around that requirement by simply claiming that police reports have not been “finalized.”

The Police Department and the city have not publicly commented on the suit.

Filing a lawsuit is not a step this newspaper takes lightly. In hopes of avoiding the lawsuit, the newspaper’s attorney on April 14 alerted the city attorney’s office of The Times-Picayune’s intention to file suit. The public information requests were still unfulfilled when the paper went to court four days later.

New Orleanians have a right to the information sought by the newspaper. And a well-informed public would be more effective in helping the Police Department fight crime. People who know what’s happening in their neighborhoods are likely to be more alert to suspicious activity and to report it.

Other law enforcement agencies in the metro area provide effective and prompt access to crime information. There’s no reason why the New Orleans Police Department can’t do the same.

Related:

• Digital Democracy
• The Wisdom of Crowds
• Letter to Ray Nagin
• Letter to Warren Riley
• More Sunshine for New Orleans
• Citizens Can Do Better!

2 deputies fired after woman says she had to expose herself
by Allen Powell II, The Times-Picayune
Thursday April 24, 2008, 8:55 PM

Two Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies have been fired and one faces criminal charges after authorities say one of them forced a female motorist to expose herself and the other deputy did not report it.

Clyde A. Clarke, 45, of 438 Holy Cross Place, Kenner, was booked with malfeasance in office after authorities claimed he forced an unidentified 26-year-old woman to expose herself to avoid arrest on two occasions. Demond T. Ferguson, 24, 1740 Hampton Drive, Harvey, was fired by the Sheriff’s Office but was not arrested.

Col. John Fortunato, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said that on Saturday, Clarke and Ferguson were traveling separately when they stopped the woman and her boyfriend on Ames Boulevard. During the traffic stop, the deputies determined that both were wanted on other traffic violations and arrested only the unidentified man.

The deputies allowed the woman to leave, but not before asking her to provide personal information, including a telephone number, Fortunato said. After Clarke took her boyfriend to jail, he telephoned the woman and told her to meet him outside her home.

When Clarke met the woman, he made her move into a dimly lit area and then demanded that she raise her skirt, Fortunato said. Clarke did not touch the woman, but when she returned to her home, he told her that the next time he called, she should not be wearing underwear.

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NOPD officer arrested for pandering, resigns job
by Daniel Monteverde and Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
Thursday April 24, 2008, 9:40 PM

A veteran New Orleans police officer resigned his position with the department after Kenner police arrested him during an undercover prostitution sting on Thursday afternoon.

Raynard Lyons, a 17-year veteran of the department, was booked with pandering after officers watched him drop off a prostitute at an undisclosed Kenner apartment building, Kenner Police Chief Steve Caraway said.

Caraway said Lyons had driven the woman to the spot after undercover detectives agreed to exchange sex for money. The connection was made through Craigslist.org, a popular advertising Web site.

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Accused cop killer found not competent for trial
by Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday April 22, 2008, 1:07 PM

The man accused of killing NOPD Officer Nicola Cotton can’t competently assist in his own defense and must be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment, a Criminal District Court judge ordered Tuesday.

Bernel Johnson, 44, will be sent to the state forensic mental hospital in East Feliciana Parish, where doctors will evaluate him and attempt to improve his psychiatric condition enough for him to stand trial in the first-degree murder of Cotton.

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Orleans judge sets July 15 execution date for Antoinette Frank
by Gwen Filosa, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday April 22, 2008, 1:13 PM

Orleans Parish Judge Frank Marullo today signed a death warrant for convicted killer Antoinette Frank, the former police officer sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 1995 triple murder at a local Vietnamese restaurant.

Marullo, acting on his own, ordered the state of Louisiana to execute Frank on July 15, between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., on the lethal injection table located at the state penitentiary at Angola.

But Frank’s state-appointed defense attorney said that the judge’s order won’t stand under the law and that Frank will receive her Constitutional guarantee to begin the state post-conviction stage of her appeal - and, if unsuccessful there, the beginning of her federal appeals.

Marullo set the next hearing date for June 10 at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, telling the defense team to turn in its post-conviction appeal at that time.

Forty-nine days, however, flies in the face of the legal standard in which capital defense attorneys have to file such an appeal, said Frank’s newly appointed public defender. The American Bar Association standard is that a post-conviction state death penalty appeal requires an average 3,300 attorney hours, he said. …

Frank, who will turn 37 on April 30, remains at the women’s prison at St. Gabriel. In 1995, an Orleans Parish jury unanimously decided that she deserved the death penalty for the rampage at the Kim Anh restaurant that left dead police officer Ronald Williams, 25, and siblings Ha and Cuong Vu - who had worked with their family at the restaurant, then located in eastern New Orleans.

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Death not linked to testimony, cops say
Shooting called part of neighborhood feud
Saturday, April 19, 2008
By Laura Maggi

Police investigating the Thursday evening shooting of a 20-year-old man who last week testified in a high-profile murder trial have no evidence that Guy McEwen was killed because of his role as a witness, New Orleans Police Department officials said Friday. …

“We believe that the young man was engaged in an incident that occurred a week ago and as a result of that incident, the events occurred (Thursday),” Defillo said, adding that the information is still being verified.

Although the department doesn’t believe the shooting was retaliation for trial testimony, officers have still contacted the other witnesses in the Bonds trial to ask if they want police assistance, Riley said.

Crimestoppers raised its reward in the case to $5,000 said for information about the shooter, said Darlene Cusanza, the group’s executive director. Anyone with information about the incident can call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. People can remain anonymous and still receive the reward money, Cusanza said.

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