Closing arguments in ‘Danziger 7’ trial start Tuesday

1st August 2011   ·   0 Comments

Defense attorneys representing NOPD officers charged with shooting and killing unarmed civilians after Hurricane Katrina took a little more than a week to make their clients’ case in federal court. The jury heard testimony last week from a nurse who said she heard the uncle of one of the young shooting victims say that some of the civilians on the bridge on Sept. 4, 2005 had guns and from the officer charged with shooting a mentally disabled man, who said he felt “horrible” about the shooting but maintained that it was justified. Jurors also visited the scene of the shooting incident and heard testimony from a former police superintendent who assumed leadership in the department after NOPD Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

A police officer heard on a conversation recorded by the FBI insisted last week that he saw a civilian with a gun on the Danziger Bridge where authorities say police shot and killed two unarmed people and wounded four others after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, The Associated Press reported.

A tape of that conversation between Officer Anthony Villavaso and a former officer, Robert Barrios, was played Monday for jurors in the federal trial of five current or former officers charged in the shootings on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the storm made landfall in 2005.

Barrios was cooperating with the FBI when he secretly taped his conversation last year with Villavaso, one of the five defendants.

During a heated exchange that lasted more than an hour, Barrios and Villavaso argued about whether anybody other than police officers was armed on the bridge when they arrived in response to an officer’s distress call.

“They had no guns out there,” Barrios said.

“If you didn’t see them, you didn’t see them,” Villavaso responded. “Now I’m supposed to change my story or something because they don’t f—— believe me?”

Villavaso allegedly gave a false statement to police investigators as part of a cover-up designed to make the shootings appear justified.

Saying “it’s time to come clean,” Barrios reminded Villavaso about the statement and urged him to tell him the truth about what he saw on the bridge.

“I went on what you said you saw. And what you said you saw ain’t adding up,” Barrios said.

“What do you mean it ain’t adding up?” Villavaso asked.

Prosecutors say police shot unarmed, wounded people and then planted a gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified reports as part of a brazen cover-up. Defense lawyers say police were shot at before they returned fire.

Barrios was called as a defense witness by attorneys for three of the five officers on trial, including Villavaso, even though he has pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up and faces up to five years in prison. Barrios was one of five former officers to plead guilty in the case, but he is the only one of those five who didn’t testify as a government witness.

A line of questioning by Villavaso’s attorney, Timothy Meche, revealed a possible explanation for why prosecutors may have been reluctant to call him to the witness stand: Barrios acknowledged that federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that he fraudulently received money from the $20 billion claims fund that energy company BP established after the Gulf oil spill. He didn’t elaborate on the nature of the allegations, but said fishing has been a source of income since he resigned from the police department.

In his testimony about the shootings, Barrios said he was scared and thought somebody was shooting at police when he heard gunfire erupt as they arrived on the bridge in a rental truck.

“I presumed it was the perpetrators,” he recalled.

Barrios said he may have waited several minutes before he left the truck but saw Robert Faulcon, a former officer on trial, jump out and fire a shotgun at a concrete barrier where several people sought cover. Barrios also said he saw Villavaso fire his weapon on the bridge.

Barrios said he initially claimed he fired a shotgun on the bridge to protect Villavaso, his partner. But he later changed his story and denied firing his weapon after he learned the New Orleans district attorney’s office was investigating.

Jurors heard testimony last week that Barrios’ wife had complained to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten that her husband felt pressured to plead guilty. Barrios, however, said that was a misunderstanding. He agreed with Justice Department attorney Bobbi Bernstein that he felt pressure building up as the investigation progressed.

“Is that different than feeling pressure from the government?” Bernstein asked.

“Yes,” Barrios said.

Earlier Monday, former NOPD Supt. Warren Riley testified that he was “shocked and surprised” to learn of the scope of the alleged cover-up.

Riley, also a defense witness, was the department’s second-in-command at the time of the shootings and took over as superintendent less than a month later. He testified that he told one of his commanders that every police shooting must be “fully and thoroughly” investigated.

Riley said he thought police had conducted a legitimate probe of the Danziger shootings before former Lt. Michael Lohman, who was the ranking officer on the bridge, pleaded guilty last year to participating in a cover-up.

On Tuesday, Jurors made an unannounced visit to the scene of the deadly incident.

State and federal law enforcement closed the Danziger Bridge on Tuesday so jurors could survey the area where police shot and killed two people and wounded four others less than a week after the 2005 storm.

Jurors left a bus and took notes as they stood on the east side of the bridge, where officers allegedly shot unarmed, wounded residents who were scrambling for cover behind a concrete barrier.

On Wednesday, former Officer Robert Faulcon said that he feels “horrible” about the shooting, but maintained his actions were justified.

Faulcon told the federal jury that he believed 40-year-old Ronald Madison was armed and posed a threat as he chased him down the west side of the bridge. He said he became “paralyzed with fear” when he saw Madison — bent over with his hands tucked into his body — turn toward him, looking over his left shoulder.

“The fear you have in that split-second, there’s no words to describe it,” he said.

Prosecutors say Faulcon had no justification for shooting Madison in the back with a shotgun as he and his brother, Lance Madison, ran from police.

Faulcon didn’t dispute that neither brother was armed or that he shot Ronald Madison in the back, but he insisted he saw two other residents with guns on the east side of the bridge.

Faulcon balked at giving a “yes” or “no” answer when Justice Department attorney Bobbi Bernstein asked him if police officers are allowed to shoot somebody whom they merely suspect or presume to be armed.

“It’s so many scenarios and so many circumstances you have to take into account to make that decision,” he said.

Police shot and killed Madison and 17-year-old James Brissette and wounded four others on the bridge on the morning of Sept. 4, 2005, less than a week after Katrina’s landfall.

Faulcon was one of several officers who piled into a rental truck and headed to the bridge in response to an officer’s distress call.

Faulcon, who was in the rear of the truck, said he heard gunfire on the approach to the bridge.

“I assumed we were getting shot at as we arrived at the scene,” he recalled.

Faulcon said he shouted, “Police!” as he jumped out of the truck and saw a fellow officer firing toward people on a walkway behind a concrete barrier. Faulcon said he fired at least four shotgun blasts in the same direction because he saw guns on two of the people on the walkway.

“If I had known they weren’t armed, I never would have fired my weapon,” he said.

Faulcon defended his actions but expressed remorse for what happened on the bridge.

“I feel horrible,” he said. “My heart goes out to the people that were hurt.”

Faulcon was the first defendant to testify at the trial, which began more than four weeks ago.

Prosecutors say police fabricated witnesses, falsified reports and planted a gun to make the shootings appear justified.

Faulcon, who resigned from the police department less than a month after the shootings, denied participating in a cover-up. But he said police reports on the shootings contained numerous inaccurate statements about what he saw and did on the bridge.

The reports, for instance, say Faulcon saw Madison reach into his waistband before he shot him. Faulcon said he never told that to any of the police investigators. He also denied saying he saw Lance Madison throw a gun off the bridge, as the reports stated.

Faulcon said he never discussed the incident with other officers in the days after the storm, apart from giving a brief statement to the officer assigned to investigate.

“It’s traumatic,” he said. “It’s something you have to live with and you just don’t want to be reminded of it.”

In testimony Thursday, a police officer suspected of lying to the FBI about the shootings claimed she saw a man point an assault rifle at police and heard incoming gunfire.

Officer Heather Gore didn’t testify in person, but jurors heard a transcript of her July 2009 federal grand jury testimony, in which she claimed a man pointed a rifle at her and other officers who arrived at the Danziger Bridge in a rental truck.

Gore testified that two other officers chased the armed man over the bridge. She said she didn’t fire her weapon at the man and doubted she could have identified him because she only looked at him for a “brief second.”

“I didn’t sit there and take pictures,” Gore said as federal prosecutors pressed her for more details.

Gore was one of several officers who piled into the rear of the rental truck and headed to the bridge in response to another officer’s distress call less than a week after the storm hit.

Gore claimed she heard “pinging” noises on the side of the truck as they approached the bridge, leading her to believe somebody was shooting at them. She said it sounded like BB gun pellets hitting a tin can.

“It could only be (from) being shot at,” she said. “What else could it be from?”

Gore, the last officer to leave the rear of the truck, also claimed she heard “outgoing and incoming fire” that made it sound like a “war zone.”

“The officers didn’t just go to the bridge and open fire,” she testified. “We were shot at.”

But prosecutors say police shot six unarmed people and didn’t recover any guns at the scene. Officers also are charged with engaging in a cover-up that included falsified reports, fabricated witnesses and a planted gun.

Gore isn’t charged with any wrongdoing.

In other testimony Thursday, a nurse who treated Jose Holmes, one of the four survivors of the shootings, said the young man suggested he was with people who had guns when police shot them, The Associated Press reported.

The nurse, Robyn Isemann, said Holmes became upset after he was visited in the hospital by his uncle, Leonard Bartholomew, who also was wounded by police. Holmes said his uncle planned to tell police that Holmes had a gun because he feared he was about to be arrested, Isemann said.

“He was upset that the uncle was blaming him, and he said, ‘They had guns,’” she testified.

Isemann said she believed Holmes was saying that “whoever was there on the bridge with him” had guns and wasn’t referring to police officers.

Holmes has testified that nobody in his group was armed.

Jurors on Thursday also heard a transcript of grand jury testimony by Lt. Bradley Tollefson, who arrived at the bridge after the shootings.

Tollefson claimed he overheard a man arrested in the aftermath of the shootings say he and his brother shot at people who were chasing and shooting at them on the bridge. Tollefson also claimed the man said he saw those same people shoot at police.

From a photograph, Tollefson identified that man as Morrell Johnson, a security guard who was briefly detained on the bridge but wasn’t charged with any wrongdoing.

But Tollefson may have been confused Johnson for Lance Madison, who was arrested after police shot and killed his 40-year-old, mentally disabled brother, Ronald.

Madison was jailed for more than three weeks before a judge released him. A state grand jury later cleared him of attempted murder charges.

Tollefson isn’t charged with any wrongdoing.

Jurors also heard testimony Thursday by Lt. Troy Savage, who supervised two of the five former officers who have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover up. Savage said one of those officers, Ignatius Hills, told him he was resigning because he was pleading guilty in the case.

Savage recalled asking Hills, “Did you do it?”

“No, I’m not guilty, but it’s the best deal I could get. I have to take it,” Hills responded, according to Savage.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt said Friday that closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday, and he expects deliberations to begin the next day.

This article was originally published in the August 1, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper