Citizen Crime Watch Blog

Warren Riley fires two officers for misconduct
by Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
Thursday July 24, 2008, 9:47 PM

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley on Thursday fired two officers accused in recent misconduct cases after expedited disciplinary hearings.

Officer Ashley Terry — accused by witnesses at the Treme Community Center last week of brandishing her gun while yelling profanities at a woman in the carpool line — was dismissed after supervisors concluded she’d violated multiple New Orleans Police Department standards, including moral conduct, courtesy, following instructions and exhibiting a firearm only with proper justification, Riley said.

Also dismissed was officer Donyell Sanchell, who allegedly led Crescent City Connection police on a chase this month, ending with Sanchell slapping a bridge officer near the 1st District police station.

The department concluded that Sanchell drove recklessly, committed a hit-and-run when he bumped the bridge officer with his truck, committed a simple battery and hadn’t met the NOPD’s professionalism standards, Riley said.

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Interim Orleans District Attorney wins seat on Criminal Court when lone opponent withdraws from race
by Gwen Filosa and Frank Donze, The Times-Picayune
Monday July 21, 2008, 8:45 PM

Keva Landrum-Johnson, who has served as Orleans Parish district attorney since last fall, won a seat on the Criminal Court bench Monday after her lone opponent withdrew from the Oct. 4 contest.

Landrum-Johnson’s uncontested victory sets the stage for another temporary chief prosecutor until New Orleans voters choose a permanent successor this fall for former District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who resigned under fire last year.

Landrum-Johnson has 30 days to take over the Criminal Court’s Section E seat vacated by Judge Calvin Johnson, who retired in January after 17 years, said Jacques Berry, a spokesman for the Louisiana secretary of state’s office.

By law, acting First Assistant District Attorney Val Solino is next in line for the district attorney post as soon as Landrum-Johnson steps down. Solino, 53, is a career prosecutor at the office with more than 20 years of service.

If he lands the appointment, Solino could hold the job through November.

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NOPD officer suspended for wearing the wrong uniform
by Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday July 09, 2008, 8:41 AM

With minutes left in the last shift of his 35-year New Orleans police career, Sgt. Bobby Guidry received a call from a supervisor telling him he had been suspended for wearing the wrong uniform shirt, the veteran officer said. …

Instead of the standard-issue all-black uniform, Guidry, a veteran officer in the city’s Uptown 2nd District, chose the powder-blue uniform shirt that he wore to work for more than three decades. …

“Eighteen people died in the line of duty in that powder-blue shirt while I was with the department,” Guidry said. “I went to each of those funerals. I wore that shirt on a Saturday, on my last day, out of respect for them.” …

The punishment will not affect Guidry’s pension or benefits, but, as it stands now, he will not receive his retired police commission and will not be accepted into the NOPD’s reserve unit, for which he had applied, Young said.

Superintendent Warren Riley, who could not be reached for comment, was apprised of the investigation, Young said.

Young said Riley stressed that “an officer has to maintain professionalism at all times, whether it is his first or last day.” …

The powder-blue uniform shirt had been worn by officers since the Police Department’s inception. Riley changed the uniform after Hurricane Katrina to all-black uniforms.

“A lot of uniforms were displaced after the storm, and they wanted to eliminate the possibility of uniforms getting into the hands of criminals,” Young said of the change.

Some officers protested the change. Many complained that the all-black uniform was too hot and that it bucked tradition.

Riley, in what some in the Police Department call a move to boost morale, recently announced that the department would revert to powder-blue shirts, probably by the first of the year.

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Audio reveals a defensive NOPD
DA’s opinion sought in police chase, slap
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
By Chris Kirkham
West Bank bureau

Crescent City Connection police plan to hand over to the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office today new video and audio footage that sheds light on the aftermath of Saturday’s pursuit of a New Orleans police officer.

Crescent City Connection police said they want an outside opinion on the appropriateness of municipal charges levied against NOPD officer Donyell Sanchell in connection with grazing a bridge police officer with his pickup truck and later slapping him.

Additional footage released by the bridge police Tuesday points to an initially defensive NOPD that sequestered Sanchell at the 1st District police station after the altercation and prevented bridge police officers from approaching him. The audio recording also shows that bridge police, even the officer who was involved in the incident, favored leniency toward Sanchell, with one officer saying, “We don’t want to put a cop in jail.”

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Trial in fatal heroin overdose postponed
4 men were charged in student’s death
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
From staff reports

The New Orleans man facing federal drug charges for his alleged role in supplying the heroin that led to a 16-year-old girl’s overdose has until September to prepare for his trial.

Henry Deeb Gabriel III had been scheduled for trial Monday on a host of federal narcotics charges related to the death of Madeleine Prevost, a Lusher School student who died after taking a dose of heroin.

Defense attorneys petitioned for the extension, which was granted by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier last month.

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$1 million bond set in nonfatal shooting
Defendant acquitted of killing musician
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
By Gwen Filosa
The Times-Picayune

An Orleans Parish judge has set bail at $1 million to keep David Bonds in jail awaiting trial on a count of attempted murder, two months after a jury acquitted the 19-year-old of murdering musician Dinerral Shavers.

Judge Julian Parker last week raised the magistrate court’s original $750,000 bond to $1 million — which in Orleans is an enormous sum for a defendant facing a charge not involving a homicide.

Bonds remained in jail as of Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s online inmate database. At the arraignment June 25, Bonds entered a plea of innocence to the count of attempted murder for a shooting that took place 24 days after an Orleans Parish jury freed Bonds from four indictments related to gunplay that ended Shavers’ life.

Bonds is again on his way to trial at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, accused of shooting a 25-year-old man in the 700 block of Canal Street on May 4.

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Coldblooded character sticks up snowball stand
Robbery is first at Hansen’s in years
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
By Brett Anderson
The Times-Picayune

Ashley Hansen has worked in Hansen’s Sno-Bliz, her family’s sno-ball stand, for most of her 34 years. The last customer she served on Friday, however, could end up being the most memorable.

“Friday at 7 o’clock, the last customer in line ordered a sno-ball, and I made him a sno-ball,” Hansen recalled. “Then he put a (handgun) to my stomach and said, ‘Give me all your money.’ ”

A New Orleans police report confirms a robbery at the venerable Tchoupitoulas Street establishment at 7:02 p.m.

A trip to Hansen’s, an iconic sno-ball stand particularly popular with families, is a summertime tradition in New Orleans. The business has been at its current address, 4801 Tchoupitoulas St., since 1944. The business itself dates to the 1930s, when Hansen’s grandfather Ernest Hansen built his first Sno-Bliz sno-ball maker while working at a local machine shop.

“The stand has never been robbed in all the years it’s been open,” Hansen said.

She said the only other employee on duty was taking out the trash during the robbery. No one was hurt.

“After I closed the doors, people were still lingering outside and I said, ‘That guy just robbed me,’ ” Hansen recalled.

Hansen took over the sno-ball stand from her grandparents, Ernest and Mary, who were married 73 years and ran the family sno-ball stand together for more than 60. They died within months of each other following Katrina.

“This place has always been sort of sacred to me,” Hansen said. “Why would you rob a sno-ball stand? It’s like taking candy from a baby.”

Two traffic judges back on Broad St.
But half of the cases still heard in Algiers
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
From staff reports
The Times-Picayune

If you’ve got a date to appear in Orleans Parish Traffic Court, take note: Two of the court’s four judges have resumed hearing cases at their 757 S. Broad St. headquarters, where work to fix damage caused by flooding after Hurricane Katrina is almost complete.

Traffic Court Division A Judge Dennis Dannel, who takes the bench at 8 a.m., and Division C Judge Paul Bonin, who starts hearing cases at noon, are no longer hearing cases at the Old Algiers Courthouse, where Traffic Court set up temporarily after the 2005 storm.

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NOPD solving more homicide cases
Determination trounces severe staff shortage
Sunday, June 29, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy
The Times-Picayune

Closing a case like this one would be a major win in a city where the sheer number of slayings overwhelms a thinly staffed NOPD homicide unit of just 16 detectives. Each detective in the homicide unit had already surpassed the nationally recommended annual caseload of six per detective — in less than half a year. If the killing holds steady, a near certainty, each detective will have a 2008 portfolio more than double that size.

“They are out there; they are relentless,” said Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of the unit, of his group. “They beat the streets, turn every stone once, sometimes twice.”

Still, despite uncooperative witnesses and an overtaxed unit, NOPD Homicide has upped its clearance rate to its highest level in years. As of late May, the squad’s clearance rate sat at 64 percent, above the national average and significantly higher than the rates of recent years.

Detectives “clear” a case when they formally name a suspect and secure an arrest warrant. Although the statistic does not consider convictions, police officials say it provides a gauge for detectives’ performance. …

Since early last year, the homicide squad has supplemented its ranks with a rotation of five or six FBI agents, who assist local investigators in all aspects of their cases. The rare federal initiative took hold as the city’s escalating murder rate garnered national attention.

But that assistance ended days ago, leaving the office as short-staffed as ever.

Defillo, boss of the investigative bureau, said the entire police force needs more people, more money. Homicide is no different. Once more recruits are hired, the homicide unit will be expanded, he said.

One key addition, Defillo said, is a recently created two-person “homicide intelligence unit” within the division, Defillo said. It tracks murder suspects, learns about their motives and anticipates retaliatory killings.

— Cases screened faster —

For the most part, the homicide unit works alone, sequestered from the day-in and day-out traffic stops, minor arrests and other tasks of a typical patrol officer. Several NOPD divisions, such as juvenile, intelligence and district detective units, lend support, yet homicide’s closest allies may be the prosecutors in the district attorney’s office.

Homicide department heads, along with Bobby Freeman, head of the district attorney’s Violent Offender Unit, said that better communication and an expedited screening process have soothed a sometimes-testy relationship between the agencies. In addition to the increased clearance rate, the homicide unit is bringing more cases to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

More than 57 cases were presented to the Violent Offender Unit in the first four months of 2008 — compared with 47 cases in all of 2007. Instead of waiting until late in the screening process, as the legal deadline to charge defendants looms, the prosecutors are working more with the detectives on the front end of the investigation, Freeman said. …

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