Six current or former New Orleans police officers are the latest to be indicted in the sprawling civil rights investigation into shootings on the Danziger Bridge and a subsequent conspiracy to cover up what happened. Two people died and four were injured in the tragic incident that happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.
Three of the officers turned themselves into the FBI today.
Frank DeSalvo, the attorney representing Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, said his client, along with officer Anthony Villavaso and Sgt. Robert Gisevius, surrendered after learning that former officer Robert Faulcon had been arrested at his home in Texas early this morning.
Also indicted by a federal grand jury were homicide Detectives Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, according to the 27-count indictment unsealed today.
There is no word yet today on whether Kaufman and Dugue are in federal custody.
After several years of investigations, DeSalvo said his client and the other defendants want to get their day in court.
"They have been in limbo for five years," DeSalvo said. "They want the jury to decide." Bowen, Villavaso and Gisevius have all been on desk duty since they were indicted in 2006.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to discuss the developments at a 2:15 p.m. press conference in New Orleans. The officers are charged with deprivation of civil rights under color of law, as well as other charges, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, making false statements and the use of a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence.
The charges break down this way:
- Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso are all charged with a civil rights violation for shooting James Brissette, a 17-year-old killed on the eastern side of the bridge, as well as for injuring members of the Bartholomew family.
Holder is in town for a Justice Department conference on gang prevention and is scheduled to speak there a little beforehand.
Four of the arrested men -- Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso -- were part of the so-called "Danziger 7," officers indicted by a state grand jury in Dec. 2006 on charges of murder and attempted murder.
The officers were accused of shooting six people on the bridge over the Industrial Canal on Sept. 4, 2005.
The state case against the seven officers accused of firing their weapons that day eventually was dismissed. Former Criminal District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow agreed with defense attorney arguments that prosecutor errors invalidated the case.
But federal investigators subsequently picked up the investigation in the fall of 2008, resulting in a string of guilty pleas earlier this year. NOPD officers have acknowledged participating in what prosecutors have portrayed as a wide-ranging cover-up that began moments after the shooting stopped.
Among the guilty pleas have been three officers originally indicted as part of the state case: former Officers Michael Hunter, Robert Barrios and Ignatius Hills. Two men who arrived at the bridge after the shooting and helped lead the investigation have also pleaded guilty to orchestrating the cover-up: former Lt. Michael Lohman and former Officer Jeffrey Lehrmann.
But throughout the spring, attorneys for the remaining officers have asserted their innocence, saying the involved officers fired their weapons because they had to. Attorneys have also asserted their clients did not cover-up what prosecutors have called a "bad shoot."
The Danziger Bridge shootings were prompted by a radio call from an officer on the Interstate 10 highrise, who reported to police at the makeshift 7th District station that they were taking fire. The officer who called in the distress signal at some point mentioned that there were officers "down under" the nearby Danziger Bridge, language apparently interpreted by police to mean some officers had been shot.
A group of officers staying at the Crystal Palace banquet hall drove in a Budget rental truck to the Danziger Bridge, encountering a group of people walking on Chef Menteur Highway over the bridge from eastern New Orleans to Gentilly.
Attorneys for the police have always asserted that the officers shot at this group of people after first taking fire.
But in guilty plea documents filed in federal court, prosecutors have painted a different picture, saying that none of the civilians had weapons. No guns allegedly belonging to civilians were ever recovered from the scene. Officers who have pleaded guilty have stated that not long after the shooting stopped, they realized the shooting was not legitimate.
Four people were injured on the eastern side of the Danziger Bridge: Susan Bartholomew, who was then 38 years old, as well as her 44-year-old husband, Leonard Bartholomew III. Their teenage daughter, Lesha Bartholomew, was injured, as was a nephew, Jose Holmes.
A friend of Holmes, 17-year-old James Brissette, was killed. The Bartholomew's youngest child, Leonard Bartholomew IV, ran away and was not injured.
As the Bartholomews were shot by police on the eastern side of the bridge, two other men were walking up the bridge, also heading to Gentilly. Lance Madison and his brother, Ronald, were trying to get back to their brother's dentist office at the foot of the bridge.
According to the guilty plea of Michael Hunter, a group of officers followed the two men in a state police vehicle that had also responded to the radio call for help. Hunter said that a man who fits the description of Faulcon fired his shotgun from the car at the back of fleeing Ronald Madison, even though Hunter said he didn't appear to be holding a weapon.
Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, died from his injuries. His brother, Lance Madison, was arrested that day, accused of shooting at police officers. Prosecutors have called that arrest part of the scheme to cover-up the shooting, saying he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
In court documents, officers fitting the descriptions of Bowen and Gisevius -- called "Sergeant A" and "Sergeant B" -- are suspected of having helped orchestrate the alleged cover-up. Prosecutors have also accused Bowen of firing an assault rifle at people on the eastern side of the bridge, even after all officers stopped shooting and it was clear that police were not taking fire.
The Danziger case is one of at least eight ongoing federal civil rights investigations into the actions of NOPD officers, many stemming from the period after Katrina.
Three officers and two former officers were indicted last month in a different case, which accuses police of shooting a man in Algiers and then covering up the incident. The body of that man, Henry Glover, was burned in a car later discovered on the Algiers levee.