Case Six Danziger Bridge Incident

October 6, 2011Judges Reject Leniency for 2 Danziger Bridge Police Shooting Trial Witnesses
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Two federal judges on Wednesday turned away separate pleas from prosecutors asking for leniency for two former New Orleans police officers who took part in the Danziger Bridge police shootings but eventually pleaded guilty and helped convict five of their former colleagues in August. Michael Hunter and Ignatius Hills already got big breaks in their respective plea agreements, the judges opined. Instead of facing prison stints of 35 years or more, like some of their convicted colleagues, Hunter will serve eight years in federal prison, and Hills will serve six and a half years. (Read more »)

August 5, 20115 NOPD officers Guilty in Post-Katrina Danziger Bridge Shootings, Cover-Up
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A jury Friday morning convicted all five New Orleans police officers accused in the Danziger Bridge shootings, which took place amid the chaos after Hurricane Katrina and claimed the lives of two civilians, and a cover-up of startling scope that lasted almost five years. (Read more »)

August 2, 2011Danziger Bridge Closing Arguments Play Hurricane Katrina Card in Vastly Different Hands
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
As federal prosecutors and defense attorneys gave jurors their closing arguments for how they should consider the evidence in the Danziger Bridge police shooting case, both sides framed the events in the context of Hurricane Katrina, but with a markedly different slant. (Read more »)

August 2, 2011Case of New Orleans Cops Accused in Post-Katrina Civilian Shootings Goes to the Jury
By Aarti Shahani, ProPublica
The landmark trial of five current or former New Orleans police officers accused of shooting unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina culminated today, leaving the final chapter of this pivotal incident in a jury's hands. (Read more »)

July 30, 2011Reported Danziger Bridge Witness Appears on the Stand
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Testimony in the high-stakes Danziger Bridge trial ended Friday as prosecutors brought in rebuttal witnesses to buttress one of their key allegations: That defendant Arthur Kaufman, the homicide detective who oversaw the New Orleans police investigation into the shootings, invented two civilian witnesses listed in his official report. (Read more »)

July 28, 2011One Danziger Bridge Defendant Out of Five Takes the Stand
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Defense attorneys wrapped up their case in the Danziger Bridge trial Thursday, with only one of the five defendants having taken the stand to explain why six civilians were shot by police on the bridge a week after Hurricane Katrina or why the subsequent police investigation was riddled with holes. (Read more »)

July 28, 2011Danziger Bridge Shootings Defendant Tells of Firing His Gun
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Coolly and calmly, former New Orleans police officer Robert Faulcon testified Wednesday that he jumped out of a large Budget rental truck on the Danziger Bridge six years ago to a cacophony of gunfire, spotted two people with handguns amid a scene of utter confusion, and opened fire on a group of civilians shielded behind a concrete barrier. (Read more »)

July 26, 2011Danziger Bridge Jury Checks Out Scene of Shootings Firsthand
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Louisiana state troopers and agents with the Federal Protective Service closed parts of Interstate 10 and Chef Menteur Highway early Tuesday morning so that jurors in the high-stakes Danziger Bridge case could get a firsthand look at the spot where New Orleans police shot six civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

July 25, 2011Defendant on FBI Tape Backs Defense Claim That Citizens On Danziger Were Armed
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Early last year, in the wake of the first few guilty pleas in the federal Danziger Bridge shootings case, two New Orleans police officers, former patrol partners, conferred inside a car in the French Quarter. (Read more »)

July 21, 2011Danziger Bridge Prosecutors Finish Presenting Their Case
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Federal prosecutors wrapped up their case Thursday against five New Orleans police officers following the emotional testimony of a young woman who recounted being shot on the Danziger Bridge as she lay next to her bleeding mother. (Read more »)

July 19, 2011Danziger Bridge Investigation By FBI Challenged
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Defense attorneys on Tuesday attacked the quality of the investigation spearheaded by the lead FBI agent on the Danziger Bridge police shootings case, trying to show that he disregarded evidence that did not fit his theory of the incident. (Read more »)

July 18, 2011Danziger Bridge jury Hears Cops' Profanity-Laced, Secretly Taped Conversation
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
As the federal probe into the Danziger Bridge police shootings tightened in late 2009, New Orleans Police Sgt. Robert Gisevius met with a former colleague in a local bar to discuss the brimming scandal over a few beers. (Read more »)

July 14, 2011Danziger Bridge Shooting Victim Killed By Shotgun Blast To Back Of The Head, Shot Several Other Times, Pathologist Says
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A renowned forensic pathologist testified Thursday that Danziger Bridge shooting victim James Brissette was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of the head and then shot at least three additional times while he lay face-down on the ground. (Read more »)

July 13, 2011Teenage Danziger Victim Was Struck By Projectiles From At Least Three Different Guns
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
James Brissette was struck by bullets or pellets from at least three different weapons on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, a firearms expert testified in federal court Wednesday. (Read more »)

July 12, 2011Danziger Bridge Investigator's Report 'Just Didn't Make Sense To Me,' FBI Agent Testifies
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
When the New Orleans Police Department's lead investigator in the Danziger Bridge case agreed to be interviewed by federal authorities in early 2009, he offered them a storyline of the police shooting that was riddled with holes, according to an FBI supervisor who headed the federal probe. (Read more »)

July 11, 2011Danziger Bridge Shootings Cover-Up Was Brazen, Former NOPD Detective Testifies
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A former New Orleans police detective testified Monday that he and his colleagues in the Danziger Bridge investigation orchestrated a brazen cover-up of startling scope that included fabricated witnesses, a planted gun, and falsified reports that tried to justify the police shootings. (Read more »)

July 8, 2011Danziger Bridge Survivor Recalls His Brother, Shot and Bleeding, Asking Him To Tell Their Family He Loved Them
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
On the Danziger Bridge, as he heard the distinct sound of gunfire behind him, Lance Madison said he thought teenagers who had been walking behind him and his brother were shooting at them. (Read more »)

July 7, 2011Danziger Bridge Shooter May Have Shot Another Man After Hurricane Katrina, Witnesses Say
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A New Orleans police sergeant accused of shooting at unarmed civilians in the Danziger Bridge case allegedly told other officers he was involved in another shooting after Hurricane Katrina, two former police officers have testified. (Read more »)

July 6, 2011Danziger Bridge Gunfire by Cop Was a Message: 'Don't Mess With Us'
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
On the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina, Michael Hunter said he first fired warning shots when he came upon unarmed, fleeing citizens, and later joined a squadron of colleagues in opening fire on some of them. (Read more »)

July 5, 2011On Danziger Bridge, Teenager Was Left 'Really Alone and Sad' After His Family Was Shot
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Leonard Bartholomew IV somehow escaped the hail of gunfire that left his parents, his sister and his cousin with grave injuries on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

June 30, 2011Danziger Bridge Shooter is the First to Testify Against his Colleagues
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Ignatius Hills remembers the crowd that lined the street behind the jail, the cheers, back-slapping and encouragement that accompanied his surrender and that of the other "Danziger 7" police officers four years ago. (Read more »)

June 29, 2011Danziger Bridge Police Shooting Survivor Says There Was No Warning or Provocation
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Jose Holmes Jr. and his family had just begun walking up the Danziger Bridge, six days after Hurricane Katrina, when they heard gunfire behind them. Holmes, now 25, recalled in court Wednesday that his uncle barked at him to jump over a concrete barrier on the edge of the roadway. (Read more »)

June 28, 2011Danziger Shooting Cover-Up Began Immediately, Former NOPD Lieutenant Testifies
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
When New Orleans police Lt. Michael Lohman arrived at the scene of the Danziger Bridge shooting, he saw no civilians with guns and heard no plausible stories from his colleagues. (Read more »)

June 27, 2011Opening Testimony in Danziger Bridge Shooting Trial Begins with Chilling Moment
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
After the barrage of bullets stopped, while Susan Bartholomew was lying on a concrete walkway of the Danziger Bridge, the men shooting at Bartholomew's family ordered her to raise her hands. But Bartholomew recalled realizing that would be impossible. "I couldn't do it, because my arm was shot off," she said softly. "I raised the only hand I had." (Read more »)

June 27, 2011Danziger Bridge Defense Paints Portrait of Justified Police Actions Amid Katrina Chaos
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
At first glance, the Danziger Bridge case would appear to be an uphill battle for any defense attorney, with hostile testimony expected not only from the survivors of the 2005 police shootings, but from five former police officers who either participated in the shootings or admitted helping to cover them up.(Read more »)

June 23, 2011Danziger Bridge Case Opening Statements Set For Monday, Now That Jurors Are Seated
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
A jury of seven men and five women was seated Thursday afternoon in the Danziger Bridge police shooting case after about nine hours of questioning of individual jurors behind closed doors. (Read more »)

June 20, 2011Teenage Danziger Bridge Shooting Victims Were in Wrong Place at Wrong Time
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Growing up with his mother and a sister who was much older than him, James Brissette was a quiet teenager, perhaps a bit more mature than some of his peers. He liked to read and play video games. He spent a lot of time at home, drawing or fiddling around on his computer. (Read more »)

June 19, 2011Danziger Bridge Case Puts 5 New Orleans Cops on Trial in Post-Katrina Shootings, Cover-Up
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Nearly six years ago, in the surreal days after Hurricane Katrina, two groups of New Orleanians walked westward across the Danziger Bridge, leaving eastern New Orleans and heading toward Gentilly. Seawater still filled large swaths of the city, helicopters hovered overhead, and uncertainty flooded everyone's mind. (Read more »)

December 29, 2010Post-Katrina Shootings by Police: Where Things Stand
By Sabrina Shankman, ProPublica
In December 2009, ProPublica, PBS "Frontline" and the Times-Picayune rolled out a series of stories on six cases of suspected police brutality in the days after Hurricane Katrina. In the year since those stories ran, investigations by the Department of Justice have probed many of the cases, resulting in indictments. But for some cases, there are still more questions than answers. (Read more »)

December 1, 2010Former NOPD Officer Michael Hunter Sentenced to 8 Years in Danziger Bridge Civil Rights Case
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Moments before a federal judge sentenced him to eight years in prison, former New Orleans police officer Michael Hunter faced the family members of the victims in the Danziger Bridge police shooting. (Read more »)

September 22, 2010Danziger Bridge Cover-Up Brings 3-year Sentence for Former NOPD Officer Jeffrey Lehrmann
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
Former New Orleans police officer Jeffrey Lehrmann was sentenced Wednesday to three years in federal prison, the maximum sentence allowed for the charge he faced, months after he pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate a police cover-up of the fatal 2005 Danziger Bridge police shootings. (Read more »)

September 6, 2010Federal Investigations of NOPD Run Up Against Statute of Limitations
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Last week marked the five-year anniversary of many incidents involving New Orleans police officers that have been under federal investigation as potential violations of civil rights, which legal experts said could mean the de facto conclusion of certain probes as prosecutors run up against statutes of limitations. (Read more »)

July 13, 2010Six More Cops Indicted in Danziger Bridge Shootings, Cover-Up
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
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. (Read more »)

May 24, 2010Danziger Bridge Cover-Up Charges Filed Against Fifth Former NOPD Officer
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
A fifth former New Orleans police officer was charged in federal court Friday with covering up the circumstances of the deadly Danziger Bridge shooting, in which police are accused of shooting six unarmed civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

April 28, 20104th Former New Orleans Cop Pleads Guilty in Danziger Bridge Cover-Up
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A fourth New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping other officers cover up the circumstances of the shooting of six civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

April 16, 2010NOPD Officer Resigns After Becoming Fourth Charged in Danziger Bridge Shooting
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Federal prosecutors charged a fourth New Orleans police officer Friday with participating in a cover-up of the deadly Danziger Bridge police shooting. (Read more »)

April 7, 2010Judge in Danziger Case Sickened By "Raw Brutality of the Shooting and the Craven Lawlessness of the Cover-Up"
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
A New Orleans police officer who fired his gun at civilians on the Danziger Bridge a week after Hurricane Katrina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, offering a chilling account of what transpired on the bridge that early September day in 2005. (Read more »)

April 1, 2010Civilian is Charged in Danziger Bridge Police Shooting Case
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
A key New Orleans police witness to the Danziger Bridge shootings, who turned out to be an imposter, was charged Thursday with lying to FBI agents about what he saw before and during the incident, according to documents filed in federal court. (Read more »)

March 30, 2010Third NOPD Officer Charged in Danziger Bridge Police Shooting
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Federal prosecutors filed a bill of information this afternoon charging a third New Orleans Police officer in the fatal police shooting on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

March 21, 2010Danziger Bridge Case Suggests Culture of Corruption at NOPD
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
When an investigator needed an identity for a fabricated witness in the Danziger Bridge police shooting, prosecutors say, he looked to his fellow officers for help. (Read more »)

March 9, 2010Second Former New Orleans Police Officer Charged in Danziger Bridge Cover-Up
By Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
A second former New Orleans police officer has been charged in federal court in the alleged police cover-up of the Danziger Bridge shootings and appears to be cooperating with investigators in the federal probe into the deadly incident in the days after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

March 9, 2010Testimony that Civilians Had Guns on Danziger Bridge Could Be Used in Cops' Favor
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
When Lt. Michael Lohman arrived at the Danziger Bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, he found six people shot by his officers, but no guns to back up police allegations of a shootout between civilians and police, according to documents associated with his guilty plea filed in federal court. (Read more »)

February 24, 2010Police Supervisor Pleads Guilty in Danziger Bridge Probe; Plea Deal Blows Case Wide Open
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Retired New Orleans police Lt. Michael Lohman has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Danziger Bridge shootings, which left two people dead and six others injured after police fired on a group of civilians trapped in the submerged city days after Hurricane Katrina. (Read more »)

February 19, 2010Danziger Bridge Shooting Investigation Targets Two Veteran NOPD Sergeants
By Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
Two veteran New Orleans police sergeants involved in the Danziger Bridge shooting -- one accused of shooting civilians and the other an investigator who examined the incident -- have received letters stating they are targets of a federal investigation, their attorneys confirmed Friday. (Read more »)

September 26, 2009FBI Agents Close Danziger Bridge to Search for Evidence
By Brendan McCarthy, Times-Picayune
The FBI closed down the Danziger Bridge for several hours Saturday, allowing agents to scour the span, apparently searching for evidence as part of an ongoing federal investigation into police shootings of several civilians on the bridge four years ago this month. (Read more »)

February 18, 2007NOPD's Bridge Probe Full of Blanks
By Laura Maggi, Times-Picayune
An internal probe of the Danziger Bridge incident, in which seven police officers fired on civilians, killing two, in post-Katrina chaos, relied almost solely on accounts by the officers themselves, with scant backing from physical evidence or statements from bystanders. (Read more »)