[StBernard] Indicted officers remain free until Tuesday

[Westley Annis]

Indicted officers remain free until Tuesday

By Laura Maggi 
Staff writer

The seven police officers charged with murder and attempted murder for
killing two and wounding four others during the flood will have the weekend
to get their lives in order, as Criminal District Court Chief Judge Raymond
Bigelow on Friday signed an order to allow the officers to surrender to
authorities Tuesday morning. 

The court originally ordered the officers to report to jail on Friday. 

While that's an unusual amount of latitude for accused first-degree
murderers, Bigelow noted his order suits the unique nature of the case.
Typically, he said, people indicted for first-degree murder would have
already been arrested and jailed. District Attorney Eddie Jordan also agreed
with the defense attorney request that the surrender date be moved back,
Bigelow said. 
Bigelow has already ruled that the officers indicted for the first-degree
murders of Ronald Madison, 40, and James Brissette, 19, are not eligible for
bond, meaning they'll remain locked up in Orleans Parish Prison until the
case winds through the courts. 

Defense attorneys are expected to ask for bond at hearings in the coming
days. 

In his brief public statement about the case, Jordan has portrayed the
officers as killing civilians "without justification, like rabid dogs." 

The statement conforms with the victims' version of what happened on Sept.
4, 2005, when they say police opened fire on a group of people walking along
Danziger Bridge without warning or provocation. 

The New Orleans police department accounts of the day have instead countered
that the officers were responding to reports of sniper fire near the bridge,
saying the seven officers who arrived that morning in a rental truck fired
their weapons only after being fired upon. 

Within the department, the rank-and-file responded to the indictments with
anger and disgust, police said on Friday, much of it directed at Jordan's
office. 

"We took a great deal of abuse for the handful of people who left during
Katrina," said Michael Glasser, president of the Police Association of New
Orleans. "Now people who stayed are getting prosecuted." 

The federal government will also keep a keen eye on the case, said U.S.
Attorney Jim Letten on Friday. The civil rights division of the U.S.
Department of Justice is monitoring the local prosecutors' progress, he
said. 

On Thursday, a state grand jury sided with the victims's portrayal of what
happened on Danziger Bridge, indicting four officers - Sgt. Kenneth Bowen,
33, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, 34, officer Anthony Villavaso, 30, and officer
Robert Faulcon, 43 - with the first-degree murder of Brissette. Faulcon, who
quit the New Orleans Police Department after Hurricane Katrina and moved
away from the city, was also charged with the first-degree murder of
Madison. They also face attempted murder charges, along with three other
officers. 

This is not the first time that Bowen has faced a murder charge. 

In 2002, then-District Attorney Harry Connick dismissed a second-degree
murder charge against Bowen after the judge decided that the single witness
in the case wasn't credible. 

Frank DeSalvo, Bowen's lawyer, said that the 2002 case against his client
fell apart once defense attorneys began asking the prosecution witnesses
basic questions. He predicted the same thing would happen once the facts of
the Danziger Bridge shooting are more closely examined. 

The previous murder charge stemmed from Bowen's fatal shooting of
28-year-old Sylvester Scott. The officer shot Scott in the back in a Gert
Town alleyway, after the suspect ran away from police who pulled up to a
porch where he was hanging out with two other men. Officers found marijuana
and a handgun at the scene of the shooting, police said. 

Police said that Bowen shot Scott in self-defense after the man pointed a
gun at the officer's midsection. While grappling in the alleyway, Bowen
placed .40-caliber Glock on Scott's back and fired once. Because Scott
continued to struggle after being shot, Bowen then handcuffed him, police
said. 

Scott's mother filed a federal lawsuit about the shooting, eventually
getting a settlement of $12,500 from the city. 

Bowen, who graduated from Loyola Law School, is a 9-year veteran of the
force, one of the more experienced officers facing charges. Although he
could have found work as an attorney, DeSalvo said his client wanted to
stick with the police. "He stayed with the department because he thought he
was doing a good thing," he said. 

Gisevius also joined NOPD in 1997, followed by officer Michael Hunter,
accused of attempted first-degree murder, who became a police officer in
1998. The other officers have all spent five years or less as NOPD officers.


Defense attorneys and police department advocates on Friday presented the
seven indicted officers as victims of a hapless district attorney with
political motivations for taking on a big case against police officers. 

The officers, many with young families, are now faced with trying to figure
out how to come up with large sums for bond - for those who can get bond -
or make plans for how their wives will make ends meet while they are
incarcerated, said Sgt. Donovan Livacarri, the employee representative of
the Fraternal Order of Police. 

"It is going to be pretty damaging to all those guys, especially the ones
who can't get out of jail," said Livacarri, adding that the police unions
are trying to start defense or family-assistance funds for the officers. 

The three officers facing lesser charges of attempted-murder will be
eligible for bond of $100,000 per count. Officer Robert Barrios faces four
counts of attempted first-degree murder, while Hunter faces two counts of
the same. Officer Ignatius Hills was charged with one count of attempted
second-degree murder. 

Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi at timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3316.