5 Ex-Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina
Shootings
NEW ORLEANS — Five former
police officers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for the shooting of six
unarmed civilians, two of whom died, in the days after Hurricane Katrina
and for orchestrating a wide-ranging cover-up afterward.
The four
officers directly involved in the shooting were sentenced in federal court to
lengthy terms ranging from 38 to 65 years, while a police sergeant who was
charged with investigating the shooting, and instead helped lead the efforts to
hide and distort what happened, was sentenced to six years.
But while
the sentences were long, they were not nearly as long as prosecutors were
seeking — in one case less than a third of the sentence the government
recommended — and for the most part were either the mandatory minimum or a few
years more than the minimum.
Before
delivering the sentences, Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of the Federal District
Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana gave a two-hour speech condemning
mandatory minimum sentences for interfering with judicial discretion and
criticizing the case put together by federal prosecutors, saying in particular
that he was “astonished and deeply troubled” by the plea deals with cooperating
witnesses at the heart of the government’s case.
Three
police officers who pleaded guilty and later testified at the trial were
involved in the shooting on the bridge and received sentences ranging from five
to eight years. Two others, a detective and a police lieutenant who helped
orchestrate the cover-up, were sentenced to three and four years.
The judge
spoke of an “air of mendacity” about the prosecution, charging that the plea
bargains — which involved lesser charges that came with capped sentences — had
limited his discretion in sentencing those who were convicted.
Prosecutors
afterward defended their strategy, explaining to reporters that the case was
cold when the Justice Department picked it up after a mishandled prosecution by
the local district attorney and a dismissal of all charges by a judge in 2008.
“I’ve
never seen an easy police case in my life,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant
attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, who
called it the most significant police misconduct prosecution since the Rodney King beating
case in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. “I have in particular
observed in the New Orleans Police Department that the code of silence was
seemingly impenetrable.”
Jim
Letten, the United States attorney for the Eastern District, called the plea
deals “not only appropriate but necessary” for a successful prosecution.
The five
former officers were convicted in August on a range of counts including federal
civil rights violations and lying to investigators. The account of their
actions given at the trial was a grim one.
On Sept
4, 2005, as much of the city still lay submerged in floodwaters, Sgt. Kenneth
Bowen and Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert
Faulcon jumped in a Budget rental truck with several other officers and raced
to the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans, responding to a distress call.
As soon
as they arrived, witnesses at the trial said, the officers began firing on
members of the Bartholomew family, who were trying to find a grocery store. A
17-year-old named James Brisette, a family friend, was killed and four others
were gravely wounded.
The
police then began to chase Lance Madison and his brother Ronald, who was 40
years old and mentally disabled, who were trying to get to the other side of
the bridge. Ronald Madison was shot in the back by Officer Faulcon and then
stomped on by Sergeant Bowen, and Lance Madison was arrested at the scene and
accused of shooting at the police. He was later cleared by a grand jury.
The four
who were convicted of taking part in the shooting came into the hearing on
Wednesday facing sentences of at least 35 years because of mandatory sentencing
guidelines; Mr. Faulcon was facing at least 65 years. All could have been
sentenced to life in prison. As it was, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Gisevius were
sentenced to 40 years, Mr. Villavaso to 38 years and Mr. Faulcon to 65 years.
A cover-up began
immediately after the shooting, and eventually grew to include made-up
witnesses and a planted handgun. A retired sergeant, Arthur Kaufman, a veteran
investigator, was charged with administering much of the cover-up, and while he
came into court Wednesday without a mandatory minimum, he was facing up to 120
years in prison. He was sentenced to six years.