Citizen Crime Watch Blog

Officer’s killer deemed insane
Appeals judges uphold lower court ruling
Saturday, May 31, 2008
By Laura Maggi
Staff writer

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld a lower federal court decision overturning the life sentence of a Texas man who killed a New Orleans police officer in 1996, concluding that Salvador Perez was insane at the time of the shooting and should not have been found guilty of first-degree murder.

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Warrant issued for jailed teen
Red-faced NOPD rescinds arrest order
Saturday, May 31, 2008
By Laura Maggi

Eighth District police last week issued a warrant for the arrest of a 15-year-old boy on a charge of aggravated burglary — apparently without realizing he has been locked up in a juvenile facility since before the crime.

Police issued a news release Thursday that said Byron Laird broke into a Marigny home with four other juveniles and robbed two men at gunpoint, on May 17.

But Judge David Bell, the chief judge at the city’s juvenile court, on Friday morning questioned how the teenager could have been involved in any burglary, since he has been in the custody of the state Office of Youth Development since early March, serving a six-month sentence.

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Cop’s arrest taints drug cases
DA drops charges in 37 prosecutions
Friday, May 30, 2008
By Laura Maggi
Staff writer
The Times-Picayune

As a member of the New Orleans Police Department’s 4th District task force, officer Joseph Lusk was involved in a plethora of Algiers drug busts, arresting people for dealing or using illegal drugs.

Lusk’s own arrest last month on suspicion of malfeasance in office means 37 of those cases have been dropped so far by the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office — whose prosecutors can’t press forward on cases with an allegedly corrupt cop as a main witness.

Each case needed to be evaluated to determine whether Lusk was an “essential witness,” or whether prosecutors could go forward without his testimony, relying on other NOPD officers, said District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson. Almost all of the cases involve drugs — save for the battery of a police officer charge in which Lusk was the alleged victim, an office spokesman said. “Once an officer is under investigation of any sort, we wouldn’t want to call him to testify for us,” Landrum-Johnson said.

— Arrested April 16 —

Lusk was arrested by his department’s Public Integrity Bureau on April 16 amid allegations he tipped off a woman about a drug location under surveillance on the West Bank.

This female acquaintance, Inger Hurst, allegedly told 4th District officers about the text-messaged tip-off — which Hurst said was meant to help her evade arrest for her drug purchases — when she was picked up the next day on suspicion of crack possession.

Lusk, who resigned from the NOPD the week of Hurst’s arrest, was booked the following week with malfeasance. The DA’s office expects to present his case to a grand jury next month, said Robert White, the assistant district attorney in charge of the office’s public corruption unit.

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Pancake House owner dies after beating in her home
Information reward goes up to $10,000
Friday, May 30, 2008By Allen Powell II
The Times-Picayune

As family, friends and customers mourned the death of Elizabeth McDaniel, authorities boosted by a large cash reward for information in the case ramped up an investigation into the killing of the popular owner of Betsy’s Pancake House.

McDaniel, 72, died Wednesday evening at West Jefferson Medical Center after she was severely beaten earlier this week in her Marrero home. She was placed on life support Tuesday when she suffered a brain hemorrhage.

“It’s hard to know that somebody could do this to somebody like her,” said her granddaughter, Brandy Dykes. “She’s going to be missed by hundreds or thousands of people.”

One day after her death, Crimestoppers announced that an anonymous donation has helped quadruple the normal cash reward for information about the crime from $2,500 to $10,000.

Crimestoppers Executive Director Darlene Cusanza said the organization already had doubled its reward before a Jefferson Parish businessman increased it again. She said an increased reward causes information to pour in to the tip lines.

McDaniel was attacked Monday about 3:30 a.m. when a man broke into her home on Warwick Drive and robbed her. Her daughter found her after a usual early morning wake-up call.

McDaniel suffered a fractured skull, a concussion and broken ribs. She was initially lucid and was able to tell her family that her assailant called her by name and threatened to hurt her daughter if she didn’t cooperate.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Thursday that no suspects have been identified. About $4,000 to $5,000 was taken from McDaniel’s home. Normand would not discuss how the suspect entered the house, and would not speculate on whether McDaniel knew her attacker.

Family members said McDaniel was able to provide investigators with a partial description of the man, and the family is combing her work records for clues.

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NOPD official to be deputy chief
Bouyelas to replace retiring Cannatella
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy
The Times-Picayune

The New Orleans Police Department’s commander of the Uptown district will be promoted Friday to the agency’s third-highest position as head of its operations bureau.

Major Kirk Bouyelas, a veteran officer and administrator who took over the helm of the 2nd District early last year, will be responsible, starting Sunday, for overseeing all patrol officers and specialized units, Superintendent Warren Riley said.

Bouyelas will be sworn in as a deputy chief in a ceremony Friday, Riley said. He will be the third deputy chief to hold the position in the past 18 months.

Bouyelas replaces Deputy Chief Anthony Cannatella, who will retire Friday, ending a 42-year police career.

Bouyelas is one of the department’s more computer-savvy officials. He was one of the earliest adopters of the department’s computerized composite sketches in the late 1990s. More recently, he initiated a popular “e-mail blast” system, providing crime and arrest updates to community groups in the 2nd District.

When a major crime occurred or a suspect developed in a case, Bouyelas wrote a brief dispatch and sent the e-mail to a select number of community group leaders, who then disseminated the news to their members.

Riley said Bouyelas has done a “great job” in the 2nd District, which patrols one of the most densely populated areas.

“He follows the community policing philosophy,” Riley said, who called Bouyelas a strategic thinker. Riley noted that Bouyelas previously worked as an assistant to two other deputy chiefs and is familiar with the job. His replacement will be named Friday, Riley said.

The superintendent also praised Cannatella, a well-known, longtime fixture in the agency.

“He has been an icon in the police department,” Riley said.

FBI raids hit French Quarter
Anti-terror task force leads ‘ongoing’ probe
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Leslie Williams

The Federal Bureau of Investigation — as part of a multi-agency anti-terrorism task force that includes the IRS — went to “multiple locations” in the French Quarter on Wednesday morning “in furtherance of an ongoing criminal investigation,” said FBI spokeswoman Sheila Thorne.

No one was arrested Wednesday morning, said Thorne, who declined to provide information about whether anyone had been detained or records had been seized. Thorne further declined to detail the reason an anti-terrorism task force conducted the raids, which she said started at about 9 a.m.

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Deputies booked in jail scheme
They tried to smuggle in pot, reports show
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy

Two Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the jail have been booked on a slew of charges after they allegedly tried distributing drugs to an inmate inside the facility, according Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s office.

A third person, a local woman, was also booked for allegedly supplying a deputy with marijuana, which he in turn tried to distribute to an inmate.

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Comment: A question — how were inmates paying for the drugs? What other activities were involved in the drug trade?

Diner owner beaten, robbed at home
Assailant knew her name, family says
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
By Chris Kirkham

The owner of popular Mid-City diner Betsy’s Pancake House is being treated for multiple broken bones after being beaten and robbed inside her Marrero home early Monday, authorities and family members said.

Someone who apparently knew Betsy McDaniel, 72, broke into her home in the 5200 block of Warwick Drive about 3:30 a.m., forced her to open a safe that held cash, and began punching and kicking her, according to family members who spoke with her Monday. McDaniel suffered a concussion, a fractured skull, three broken ribs and a broken hand, her family said.

“She said, ‘They almost killed me,’ ” said McDaniel’s daughter, Mary Murdock, who lives next door and manages the restaurant. “That’s what she kept saying.”

Family members said McDaniel told them the assailant specifically called her by name and threatened to kill “Ladybug,” a nickname for Murdock, if she did not open the safe. She told her family she did not recognize her attacker.

McDaniel had not been able to notify 911 before Murdock made the routine wake-up call at 4:10 a.m., to prepare for the restaurant’s 5:30 a.m. opening. When she picked up the phone, she told Murdock she had been robbed and beaten.

Emergency responders arrived at 4:20 a.m. and brought her to West Jefferson Medical Center, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. McDaniel was in the intensive care unit late Monday, family members said.

After looking through McDaniel’s home, family members said it appeared that all the money in the safe was stolen, along with the money in McDaniel’s wallet.

Murdock and her daughter, Brandy Dykes, who lives a block away, said they think McDaniel was hit over the head with an object, then repeatedly kicked and punched.

“She’s hurting really bad, but the doctors said she should be fine,” Dykes said. “She’s a lot tougher than people take her for.”

McDaniel has owned Betsy’s Pancake House since it opened in 1986. The restaurant did not open Monday.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call burglary detective Myron Gaudet of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office at (504) 364-5300 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.

NOPD agrees to provide police reports to newspaper
by The Times-Picayune
Friday May 23, 2008, 8:01 PM

The New Orleans Police Department agreed Friday to make incident reports available after they are approved by a shift supervisor, settling a court dispute with The Times-Picayune over how long it should take before the public can see the reports.

The department had contended that the reports should be shielded from public view until they arrived at a records room in police headquarters, a process that can take two weeks.

The newspaper said the reports are public records as soon as they are written. Generally, an officer writes the reports before his or her shift is over.

State law says that initial incident reports are public records and it includes a list of details they are supposed to contain, such as the location of the crime and a description of what happened. Other documents, such as reports from detectives on the status of their investigations, are shielded from public view and the newspaper did not seek those in its suit.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Police Department is allowed to contend that some sensitive details of a police report may be exempt from public view. In those instances, the department must provide a copy of the document that omits those details.

The newspaper sued the department over a variety of public access issues April 18.

The Police Department agreed to comply with other public records requests from the newspaper, most of which sought crime statistics.

Under state law, the losing party in a public records dispute must pay the winner’s legal fees. As part of their deal, the newspaper and the Police Department agreed to try to resolve the question of what legal fees are owed to The Times-Picayune. If they cannot agree, the issue will be decided by Civil District Judge Kern Reese, who approved the settlement Friday.

Traffic, municipal court building to reopen
by Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune
Friday May 23, 2008, 8:10 PM

Mayor Ray Nagin, local judges and others on Friday pronounced the city’s storm-damaged traffic and municipal courts building fixed and nearly fit to re-enter service after almost three years of vacancy and $5.6 million in repairs.

The announcement actually was about three weeks early. Operations in the building are expected to resume June 16, returning four Municipal Court divisions and two divisions of Traffic Court to their permanent home at the corner of South Broad and Gravier streets.

A brief late-morning ceremony marked a success in a painstaking effort by the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair critical infrastructure wrecked by Hurricane Katrina.

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