Katrina killings: judge orders new trial over police shootings after hurricane
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Version 0 of 1. Five former New Orleans police officers deserve a new trial on charges connected to the deadly shootings of unarmed people amid the chaos following hurricane Katrina, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, upholding a judge’s 2013 decision. Related: 10 years after the storm: has New Orleans learned the lessons of Hurricane Katrina? Four of the men are charged in the shootings at the Danziger Bridge on 4 September 2005, a week after hurricane Katrina hit and levee failures led to catastrophic flooding. A fifth ex-cop is charged in the cover-up, which fell apart as federal investigators bore down. At the time the city remained badly flooded, with utilities out and the police force under strain. Police shot and killed two unarmed people and wounded four others at the bridge. Police said the officers were responding to a report of other officers down when they came under fire. Police also said one of the men, Ronald Madison, was reaching for a gun. Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man and James Brissette, 19, were killed. All five men were convicted in 2011. Former officer Robert Faulcon was sentenced to 65 years in prison; former sergeants Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius, 40 years; former officer Anthony Villavaso was given 38, and former Sergeant Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, six. Kaufman was released on bond in 2013. The others remain jailed. In 2013, US District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled they deserved a new trial because prosecutors’ anonymous online postings tainted the judicial process. A three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals upheld that decision. The 2-1 ruling upholds a new trial for two former sergeants, Gisevius and Bowen, and former officers Villavaso and Faulcon. All are facing charges in the shooting and cover-up. The reasons for granting a new trial are novel and extraordinary Former sergeant Kaufman was also convicted in the cover-up and will get a new trial. Prosecutors had argued there was no evidence the verdict was tainted. The fifth circuit majority strongly rejected their arguments. “The reasons for granting a new trial are novel and extraordinary,” Judge Edith Jones wrote on behalf of herself and Judge Edith Clement. “No less than three high-ranking federal prosecutors are known to have been posting online, anonymous comments to newspaper articles about the case throughout its duration. “The government makes no attempt to justify the prosecutors’ ethical lapses, which the court described as having created an ‘online 21st century carnival atmosphere.’” Tuesday’s decision comes less than two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the storm, which struck the Gulf Coast on 29 August 2005, causing widespread death and destruction in Mississippi and south-east Louisiana. About 80% of New Orleans flooded. |