News groups seek access to DOJ probe of Danziger case
6th February 2017 · 0 Comments
The Associated Press and Nola.com/The Times Picayune late last month asked a federal judge to grant public access to court documents related to the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation of prosecutorial misconduct in the high-profile, post-Katrina Danziger Bridge. Less than a week after Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee breaks flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, NOPD officers fatally shot two unarmed civilians and wounded four others on the eastern New Orleans bridge.
The shooting incident was one of several high-profile, officer-involved killings that led to a federally mandated NOPD consent decree aimed at overhauling the troubled police department and a $13.3 million settlement between the victims’ families, survivors and the City of New Orleans.
The NOPD officers convicted in the Danziger Bridge shootings and cover-up were later granted a new trial after it was learned that several key federal prosecutors posted comments online about several active DOJ cases, including the Danziger Bridge incident.
After the officers were granted new trials by U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who took the U.S. Attorney’s Office to task for the online posting scandal, a number of grassroots community organizations accused federal prosecutors of deliberately posting comments about the case to pave the way for the cops to secure new trials in the event that they were convicted.
Nola.com reported that Judge Engelhardt has suggested that the court records could potentially implicate high-ranking DOJ officials for having knowledge of but failing to report possible prosecutorial misconduct to Engelhardt.
The online posting scandal led to the dismissal of several key federal prosecutors and the resignation of then U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, the longest-serving U.S. attorney in U.S. history.
In court documents filed Jan. 26, 2017, Nola.com/The Times Picayune and The Associated Press content that the public has a right to know what is contained in all of the sealed court documents and transcripts Engelhardt used to render a decision in the racially charged case, including his controversial decision in 2013 to throw out the officers’ convictions.
“Because allegations of prosecutorial misconduct erode public trust in the criminal justice system, they deserve to be addressed publicly, both to deter future misconduct and to restore public confidence by showing that abuses do not go unchecked,” the media organizations argue in court documents.
While Judge Engelhardt granted Nola.com’s request in 2013 for DOJ documents related to the agency’s probe of the case and federal prosecutors’ handling of it, he did not release all of those documents, citing a “a compelling interest of confidentiality” as the government appealed Engelhardt’s decision to overturn the convictions, the cops prepared for new trials and the DOJ investigated prosecutorial misconduct.
Now that the DOJ probe ended in 2013, the lost its appeal to Engelhardt’s decision in 2015 and a 2016 plea deal allowed the accused officers to avoid a new trial, The AP and Nola.com contend that “the compelling interests cited by the court previously no longer justify secrecy” and all records related to the case should be made public.
“Further delay of access will only further deprive the public of the opportunity to review information to which it is entitled, while the information remains newsworthy,” the motion continued.
Among the documents sought by Nola.com and The Associated Press is a report on prosecutorial misconduct by special prosecutor John Horn who the DOJ assigned to investigate the matter after former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone admitted that he posted comments online about several active DOJ cares, including the Danziger Bridge shootings. The probe discovered that another top federal prosecutor, First Asst. U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, had also posted comments on Nola.com about active DOJ cases using pseudonyms.
Nola.com reported that Judge Engelhardt said during the sentencing of the former NOPD officers in the Danziger case last year that some concealed records show that lead prosecutor Barbara “Bobbi” Bernstein told several DOJ officials that DOJ prosecutor Karla Dobinski had also posted comments online but was instructed by the two DOJ officials not to share that information with Engelhardt.
Other requested documents include at least three status conferences from the fall of 2012 “during which testimony was given.”
The final cop involved in the Danziger Bridge case, former NOPD officer Gerard Dugue, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation in November, clearing the way for the release of the remainder of the documents connected to the case.
This article originally published in the February 6, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
