Citizen Crime Watch Blog

Off-duty escort work of St. Bernard, NOPD officers subject of probe
by Laura Maggi and Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday June 24, 2008, 9:45 PM

Officers within the New Orleans Police Department and St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office traffic divisions are the subjects of a federal investigation into required off-duty police escorts of oversized vehicles traveling within their parishes.

Bob Young, the head of the NOPD’s public information office, said Superintendent Warren Riley is “aware of the investigation and has been cooperating with the federal government in their investigation.”

Young said he understood that “a couple” of NOPD officers have received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in New Orleans.

The federal probe stems from a complaint filed with the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about police escorts required for FEMA trailers being removed from the two parishes, said St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens.

“We are working with them to determine if there are any irregularities with those escorts,” Stephens said.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten declined to comment about any federal investigation or grand jury probe.

In both St. Bernard and Orleans parishes, police escorts are required by local rules that mandate that the drivers of vehicles with oversized loads pay for the police to direct them through the parish.

Off-duty officers in both St. Bernard and Orleans parishes take their payment for the escort work directly from the driver, often in cash, said people who have used the service. Both departments require the escorts not only on local roads, but also on the federal highway, according to several representatives of manufactured-housing companies.

Stephens said his officers receive $100 for their work, which can be paid by either cash or check. NOPD officers also receive $100, according to people who have made the payments. …

Sgt. Don Kelly, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department, said escorts are not required on either Interstate 10 or Interstate 12 as they pass through that city. But if an oversized vehicle gets off the highway, it is required to be escorted by a motorcycle detail of at least one off-duty officer, he said. Escorts in Baton Rouge cost $200 regardless of how many officers are needed.

When companies apply to the state DOTD for a permit to move an oversized load, the agency tells drivers that they will likely need a police escort on local roads in New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, Jefferson Parish, Baton Rouge and Shreveport, said Dustin Annison, a spokesman for the agency.

[more]

You don’t lose gun rights in traffic stop
By Gordon Hutchinson

“The female officer got out and walked up to my car, and I told her, ‘I’m sorry. I know better. I simply wasn’t paying attention when I made that left turn.’

“When she asked for my driver’s license, insurance and registration, I told her there was a gun in the glove box, just to warn her. She walked around to the other side of the car, opened the door, opened the glove box and took the gun out. It was a little .25 automatic. It wasn’t even loaded.

“She proceeded to write me the ticket. When she gave me the ticket, she made some sort of quick spiel about where I could come to get the gun back if I brought a receipt for it. I didn’t follow what she was telling me, but she kept the gun.

“When I asked her if she was going to give me a receipt, she told me: ‘The way I look at it, I didn’t know you had it, and you don’t know I’ve got it.’ She left with the gun.”

[more]

Judge Seeber Bridge repairs under way
by John McCusker, The Times-Picayune
Saturday June 21, 2008, 1:45 PM

Workers install a new motor which will power a metal traffic barrier on the Judge Seeber Bridge over the Industrial Canal in the ninth ward. The long-broken barriers contributed to the accident in which a veteran NOPD officer plunged to his death. The repairs will take a couple of days.

Related:

Police, family pay respects to officer
Felix lauded for bravery, dedication
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune

At an emotional funeral service, members of the New Orleans Police Department on Wednesday remembered Detective Tommie Felix as a devoted police officer who always took it upon himself to go after the bad guys, even if it meant risking his life.

Detective Gabriel Favaroth, a longtime friend who attended the NOPD police academy with Felix, called him a beloved prankster, but one who could balance levity with serious police business.

“If we had one (Tommie) in each district, the world would be a better place,” said Favaroth, who choked up during his eulogy, remembering his friend and former partner.

Felix, who joined the department in 1991, died early in the morning on May 20 when his car plummeted into the Industrial Canal because of a series of mechanical and operational breakdowns at the Claiborne Avenue drawbridge.

His death marks the fourth death in the past seven months within NOPD ranks. Officer Nicola Cotton was killed in late January after a confrontation with a man in a parking lot. Sgt. Thelonious Dukes died a month after he was shot by a robber during what police have described as a home invasion. Rookie officer Matthew Schmit was killed in a car accident in December, just a few days after graduating from the police academy.

[more]

March honors fallen officer
by Molly Reid, The Times-Picayune
Saturday June 21, 2008, 10:45 AM

More than 70 marchers are making their way from City Hall to a Central City elementary school to protest street violence and honor fallen New Orleans police officer Nicola Cotton, who was killed January in the line of duty.

After a brief prayer, the marchers set off from City Hall down Loyola Avenue, with several children holding a banner proclaiming “Youth Against Violence.”

When they reach their destination — Mahalia Jackson Elementary on Jackson Avenue — the group will dedicate a playground erected by the nonprofit builder KaBOOM! in Cotton’s memory.

“We want children to learn other ways to solve conflict,” said Travis Lyons, founder of Central City Youth Against Violence, which organized the march.

Cotton, who was 24 when she died, “was one of the people who mentored the kids on the street,” Lyons said. “If she saw them out, she ran them off, got them off the corners. And she was young. She was just a kid herself.”

Saturday’s event marked the Central City organization’s ninth annual non-violence march. In addition to members from several community groups, including the Central City Partnership and the Central City Comeback Committee, City Council members Stacy Head and James Carter participated in the march.

[more]

Governor extends Guard’s N.O. stay
Soldiers to patrol areas through end of the year
Friday, June 20, 2008
By Laura Maggi
The Times-Picayune

National Guard troops will remain in New Orleans until the end of the year to help police officers patrol the less populated areas of the city, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Thursday.

“We know part of encouraging people to come back and rebuild their homes and businesses is having confidence in the security,” Jindal said a news conference with NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley and Mayor Ray Nagin.

Currently 360 Louisiana Guard soldiers patrol New Orleans. Gov. Kathleen Blanco first sent the troops in the summer of 2006 after a spate of murders and an uptick in other crime after Hurricane Katrina. The soldiers have been deployed in the New Orleans Police Department’s 3rd, 5th and 7th Districts, which include most of the flooded areas of the city, from Lakeview to eastern New Orleans to the 9th Ward.

The soldiers were set to leave next month, until Jindal decided to extend their tour at the request of Riley and Nagin. Jindal granted an extension after taking office in January, as Blanco had repeatedly done when she was governor.

The state spends about $1 million each month to keep the complement of Guard soldiers in New Orleans.

Jindal emphasized that the number of soldiers will be reduced in the coming months. About 320 soldiers will be kept through July and August, the hottest summer months when crime typically spikes in New Orleans. Some troops will be pulled out of the city in September, when 260 soldiers will remain, said Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, the head of the Louisiana Guard. The troop strength will decrease again in November to 216 soldiers, who will continue to patrol until Dec. 31, he said.

The Police Department, meanwhile, has launched a $1 million campaign to recruit more officers. The money for that campaign also came from the state, as well as some private money.

[more]

Orleans judge promises two death warrants on Monday
by Gwen Filosa, The Times-Picayune
Monday June 16, 2008, 3:05 PM

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo today said he will sign two execution warrants in separate capital cases on Monday, including the convicted accomplice in the 1995 Kim Anh triple murders that left a police officer and two siblings dead.

Marullo, the most senior judge at the Tulane Avenue courthouse, said he didn’t plan on ordering two convicted murderers to die by lethal injection on one day, but scheduling conflicts left him no choice.

The judge announced his plans today at a hearing scheduled for Rogers LaCaze, who remains on death row at the Angola state prison after an Orleans jury condemned him to die for the armed robbery turned triple killing at the eastern New Orleans restaurant. …

LaCaze was convicted, along with former police officer Antoinette Frank, in the gunshot deaths of Officer Ronald Williams,25, and siblings Cuong Vu, 21, and Ha Vu, 17, at the Kim Anh restaurant where all of them, including Frank, had worked. The separate juries heard graphic eyewitness testimony from one of the Vu children who recounted how she hid in a freezer and helplessly watched Frank and LaCaze storm through the family-owned restaurant flashing guns between sounds of gunfire. …

Frank, 37, remains on death row at the women’s prison at St. Gabriel, awaiting the state’s lethal injection needle for the shooting deaths of New Orleans police officer Ronald Williams, 25, and siblings Cuong Vu, 21, and Ha Vu, 17, at the Kim Anh restaurant where all of them, including Frank, had worked.

If Marullo indeed signs a pair of execution warrants Monday - the second is for convicted murderer Juan Smith of New Orleans - it will be the judge’s third death warrant of the year, in a parish that in recent history has been relcutant to condemn convicts to die by lethal injection.

Orleans Parish juries have sent 38 convicts to death row in the past 30 years, the state Supreme Court has said.

Smith, 33, awaits the lethal injeciton needle for a triple murder in eastern New Orleans on Feb. 5, 1995. The Kim Anh murders took place before 2 a.m. on March 4, 1995.

Smith was condemned to die after a trial in 1996 for the nightmare that police found on Morrison Avenue: Andre Smith and Tangie Thompson were found face down in their own blood inside a den of the New Orleans home. Beneath Thompson was her son, Devyn Thompson, 12, also shot to death. Prosecutors called it an attempted robbery turned bloodbath and a jury unanimously agreed that the death penalty was the proper punishment. …

Prosecutors haven’t asked for any death warrants in the Kim Anh case. Instead, Marullo has been acting on his own, coupling requests for post-conviction relief with execution orders. Marullo’s first such death warrant this year, issued for Antoinette Frank, was canceled by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Marullo signed Frank’s death warrant April 22 as the Williams family watched in court. Marullo said then that the 13-year-old case has been “well-litigated” and that he was following the law, which requires that a capital case be “handled expeditiously.”

The state prison at Angola, where all executions take place, didn’t expect the July 15 date for Frank to hold. Officials there said in April that they haven’t updated the “media witness” list for executions since the last time the prison held a lethal injection six years ago.

Attorney Gary Clements, of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, appealed for more time, arguing the Marullo was ignoring the state law that allows a convicted murderer time to file a post-conviction appeal before receiving an execution date. Instead of a July execution, the state Supreme Court granted Frank an additional 90 days in which to file her appeals.

Clements can only represent Frank in this case, since to represent co-defendants in any criminal case is a classic conflict of interest.

The 90-day clock began on June 10 — the deadline that Marullo in April had given Frank to file her appeal at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, while signing her death warrant at the same time.

Louisiana last executed a convicted killer on May 10, 2002, at Angola. Leslie Dale Martin died by lethal injection for the rape and strangulation of Christina Burgin in Calcasieu Parish.

Louisiana has 85 convicts remain on death row. Frank is one of two women. They are housed at the state’s only women’s prison at St. Gabriel.

Clements has said that Frank is among 66 condemned inmates who have yet to exhaust their state appeals, which take place before a death row inmate may ask the federal system for a review.

An Orleans Parish jury hasn’t sent a convict to death row since 1997, when Phillip Anthony was condemned for the triple killing at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen in the French Quarter.

On Sept. 12, 1995, the Frank jury unanimously returned a guilty-as-charged verdict on three counts of capital murder and then recommended she be put to death. Marullo formally sentenced her to die Oct. 20, 1995 - seven months after the triple killing at Kim Anh.

The Williams family has been steadfast in advocating for the death penalty for both Frank and LaCaze.

[more]

Man booked in attempted murder
Bonds back in court after April acquittal
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
By Gwen Filosa

David Bonds, the 19-year-old acquitted in the slaying of musician Dinerral Shavers, now is charged with attempted murder in a shooting that took place 24 days after an Orleans Parish jury freed him.

Bonds remains in jail in lieu of $750,000 bail. He was scheduled to appear in magistrate court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing that his public defenders requested. But prosecutors filed a charge of attempted second-degree murder against Bonds, sending the case to trial in one of the 12 sections of Criminal District Court.

Bonds is accused of shooting a 25-year-old man in the 700 block of Canal Street at dawn on May 4. Police said Bonds got into an argument with another man about 5 a.m. at Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue and that Bonds shot the man in the torso.

Attempted murder carries a penalty of up to 50 years in prison upon conviction. The case hasn’t yet been allotted to a judge.

Bonds turned 19 three days after the Canal Street shooting, and returned to police custody May 16 after police located him in Thibodaux.

Two people saw the shooting, according to a police news release.

After an emotional trial, Bonds was acquitted April 10 of murdering Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinerral Shavers. Bonds was accused of shooting into Shavers’ car as he drove away from a heated confrontation between the musician’s stepson and a friend and other teenagers on Dumaine Street.

[more]

Homeland Security director announces his retirement
by The Times-Picayune
Tuesday June 10, 2008, 7:24 AM

Col. Terry Ebbert, the city’s director of Homeland Security, has announced his retirement as of June 30.

Ebbert, named to his position in February, 2003, said in a press release issued by the mayor’s office that he has “some family, personal and professional goals that remain unfulfilled.” He said he intends to remain involved in working to restore the city “to its prominent position as one of the strategic and vital cities in America.”

The announcement comes a day after Mayor Ray Nagin’s top political aide, Kenya Smith, announced his resignation. Smith, with Nagin since 2002, was director of intergovernmental relations.

Lt. Col. Jerry Sneed, who led the city’s hurricane preparation efforts in 2007, will continue in his role, according to the press release.

[more]

FBI to end stint in homicide unit
N.O. squad got help from federal agents
Saturday, June 07, 2008
By Brendan McCarthy

The FBI will be ending its one-of-a-kind homicide initiative with the New Orleans Police Department later this month, withdrawing the agents that supplemented the NOPD’s taxed murder squad.

The move draws to a close the 17-month initiative, which put FBI agents from across the country into the NOPD’s homicide unit for several months at a time. The agents assisted local detectives from crime scene to clearance, knocking on doors and helping out in many other facets of the investigations. A group of five detectives was placed in the unit for up to three-month rotations. …

NOPD Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of the homicide unit, said the departure will mean fewer bodies in the office but said it will not affect the squad’s output.

“We do feel confidently that it will not impact the service and job performance of the homicide division,” Anderson said. “It will not impact our ability to put murderers in jail.”

[more]

N.O. cop won’t see fleeing charge
He still must face DWI, speeding case
Saturday, June 07, 2008
By Laura Maggi

The Orleans Parish district attorney’s office this week decided against prosecuting an off-duty New Orleans Police Department officer for fleeing from a Crescent City Connection squad car, although Officer Charles Richard still faces myriad charges in traffic court, including reckless driving and driving while intoxicated. …

Richard is scheduled to go to trial June 25 in New Orleans traffic court on charges of driving while intoxicated and recklessly operating a vehicle, as well as speeding and running a red light, said Louis Ivon, the court’s administrator.

Richard was heading across the Crescent City Connection at around 1:37 a.m. on March 3 when Sgt. David Kramer with the CCC Police Department clocked his Dodge Charger going 83 mph in a 50 mph speed zone. Kramer followed the car in his cruiser, with his lights on, but Richard didn’t stop for 2.9 miles, according to a brief police report filed at Criminal District Court.

Kramer followed the car off the Gen. DeGaulle Drive exit and continued as the driver turned right onto L.B. Landry Ave. Richard kept going, according to the report, ending up on Shirley Drive, where he failed to stop for a red light at the Gen. Meyer Avenue intersection.

Richard then crashed into the Naval Support Activity building on Gen. Meyer and was ejected from the car, the report said. At that point, Kramer realized the driver was an off-duty New Orleans police officer, the report said.

An EMS unit took Richard to University Hospital, where a blood sample was taken. The report stated that Dr. Frank Minyard, the Orleans Parish coroner, examined the laboratory report from Richard’s blood and found the ethanol level was high enough to “significantly impair Richard’s judgment.”

[more]