5 current and former New Orleans officers plead not guilty to new indictment in Henry Glover case

Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 3:46 PM     Updated: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 7:24 PM

Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
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Five current and former New Orleans police officers pleaded not guilty Thursday to a new indictment by a federal grand jury earlier this month, which altered only one charge against former officer David Warren, who is accused of fatally shooting a 31-year-old Algiers man after Hurricane Katrina.

As in the indictment handed up by a grand jury in June, Warren is accused of depriving the civil rights of Henry Glover by shooting him, a shot that allegedly resulted in the man’s death. In the new indictment, issued Aug. 6, prosecutors added five new words to the charge.

The new charge adds “and an attempt to kill” to language that accuses Warren of using a dangerous weapon, as well as causing “bodily injury” and Glover’s death. 

According to a recent filing by federal prosecutors, the new language means that Warren can receive a life sentence if a jury finds that he tried to kill Glover by shooting him. Previously, he would receive a life sentence if the jury found he caused Glover’s death by shooting him.

The civil rights charge Warren faces can, in some circumstances, result in the death penalty. But federal prosecutors earlier this month announced they will not try to seek that punishment if Warren is convicted.

Warren fired his assault rifle at Glover from the balcony of the 4th District’s detective substation at a shopping mall near the corner of Seine Street and Texas Drive. The wounded Glover was then picked up by a good Samaritan, William Tanner, who drove the man, along with his brother, to a nearby school.

Tanner has always maintained that Glover was alive when he helped him into his car. In a police document, Warren has said that he believed he missed the man he fired at.

Two New Orleans officers who were at the school are alleged to have beaten the men who tried to assist Glover and then drove off with Glover’s body in the car, taking it to the Mississippi River levee behind the 4th District police station. Those officers, Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann and officer Greg McRae, are accused of setting the car on fire, burning up Glover’s body.

Two 4th District officers, former Lt. Robert Italiano and Lt. Travis McCabe, are accused of writing a false police report to cover up the true circumstances of the shooting. They also are accused of lying to federal agents.

While only the charge against Warren changed, all five defendants had to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore to plead not guilty to the new indictment. Warren, who is jailed pending trial, wore a green federal inmate jumpsuit and was shackled and handcuffed. The other defendants are out on bond pending trial.

After the Justice Department earlier this month decided not to seek the death penalty against Warren, he asked the court to reconsider the decision to deny bail. Moore will consider that issue at a hearing Monday afternoon.

2 New Orleans police officers indicted in 2005 Treme beating death

Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 12:14 PM     Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 1:29 PM

Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
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Two New Orleans police officers face federal charges in the July 2005 death of a Treme man who died from various injuries, including a ruptured spleen, after police dropped him off at Charity Hospital.

Officer Melvin Williams was charged in a federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights under the color of law, resulting in the death of Raymond Robair. The charge alleges that Williams beat Robair with a baton, using unreasonable force.

Because Robair died as a result of the alleged beating, if convicted Williams faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A second count charges Williams and Matthew Dean Moore with obstruction of a federal investigation, saying they wrote false statements in their reports about how Robair was injured, writing up the case as merely a “medical incident” involving a man they encountered on Dumaine Street.

Both officers failed to tell medical personnel at Charity Hospital that Robair had been hit with a police baton by Williams, according to the indictment.

A third count charges Moore with making false statements to a federal agent on March 11 and March 16 of this year. Moore told FBI agents that Williams never harmed Robair, according to the indictment.

The charges against Williams and Moore means that federal prosecutors have now charged 18 New Orleans police officers with civil-rights offenses in recent months. Until now, all of the charges involve violence that took place in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. However, Robair’s death occurred a month before the storm.

The death of the 48-year-old Robair was investigated by the New Orleans Police Department soon after the incident, but the internal investigation cleared both Moore and Williams of wrongdoing before Katrina struck the city in late August. The FBI also began a parallel investigation of the incident in August 2005, but the case faltered over the years, apparently picking up steam in recent months.

While witnesses in the neighborhood said they saw the officers beat Robair, the police report told a different version of events.  In a report, Williams and Moore maintained that they encountered an unknown man sbumgling around at North Robertson and Dumaine streets. The man needed medical attention — he was holding his chest — and the officers put him in a car to take him to the hospital, according to the report. Williams also claimed to have found a clear plastic bag nearby containing smaller baggies of cocaine.

Community policing is focus of meeting between federal Justice officials, NOPD leaders

Published: Friday, July 09, 2010, 10:31 PM     Updated: Friday, July 09, 2010, 10:46 PM

Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
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Another group of top officials from the U.S. Department of Justice met with New Orleans police brass Friday, the latest in the ongoing federal assessment of the beleaguered New Orleans Police Department.

This time, Bernard Melekian, director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, discussed how police and local leaders can maximize the impact of community-policing grant money and focus on solving community problems.

Melekian told the officers that his agency has a keen interest in the New Orleans Police Department and wants to help finance initiatives, but he noted that federal financing is especially tight.

“Obviously, we are paying attention to New Orleans,” Melekian said. “The Department of Justice has a lot of interest in what’s going on here.”

The federal COPS office was created through a provision in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Last year, Melekian’s agency provided a $2.5 million grant to pay for 15 new NOPD officers.

Community policing, a philosophy that caught fire in the 1990s, tries to reduce reliance on the 911 response system by dedicating officers to neighborhood intervention and problem-solving, which can range from crime-fighting to trash removal to truancy. The strategy also relies heavily on the trust and assistance of the community, which acts as the eyes and ears for police.

While in town, Melekian also planned to meet with Mayor Mitch Landrieu, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and members of Community United for a Change, a group advocating police reform.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas introduced Melekian at Friday’s command staff meeting by saying Melekian was there to “tell us how the Washington, D.C., crowd is here to help us help ourselves.”

The Justice Department, which includes the COPS agency, is conducting a wholesale assessment of the NOPD. Landrieu has said the assessment will serve as the foundation for a consent decree, or court-ordered, federally mandated set of policing guidelines.

Locally, the NOPD’s financial stability has come under scrutiny.

The department was on pace to end this year $11 million in the hole. Meanwhile, the force spent $6.1 million on overtime through mid-June this year, nearly four times the $1.6 million it was allocated for all of 2010, according Landrieu’s office.

Earlier this week, Serpas fired 38 civilian NOPD employees, along with 12 members of the current recruit class training at the police academy, in order to lessen spending.

The bleak budget outlook came up several times in conversation at Friday’s weekly command staff meeting. After a commander in the traffic division talked of a couple recent car collisions involving officers, Deputy Chief Marlon Defillo told the officers: Take care of your police cars.

“We are not buying any more this year,” Defillo said. “We are literally out of money.”