[StBernard] Sentencing for convicted St. Bernard Parish judge postponed again

[Westley Annis]

Sentencing for convicted St. Bernard Parish judge postponed again
Published: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 2:08 PM     Updated: Thursday, August
12, 2010, 3:50 PM
 Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune 
 
Sentencing for convicted former St. Bernard Parish Judge Wayne Cresap has
been postponed a fourth time.


Cresap, who pleaded guilty last October to taking part in a judicial bribery
scheme that allowed inmates to get out of jail without paying bond money,
was to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon.
The new sentencing date is Sept. 9.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, whose office prosecuted the
Cresap case, said Letten had no comment.  Cresap's attorney, Pat Fanning,
also could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Two St. Bernard attorneys, Victor J. "V.J." Dauterive and Nunzio Salvadore
"Sal" Cusimano, also pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.Lemmon
sentenced Dauterive in April to 48 months in prison and Cusimano to 33
months.


Authorities said Dauterive and Cusimano took cash - veiled as a retainer fee
- from family or friends of inmates at the St. Bernard Parish Prison. They
would then split the money with Cresap in exchange for him converting
secured bonds, which require actual money or property to be pledged, into
personal surety bonds that required only a written agreement that the money
would be paid if the defendant skipped court. The arrangement resulted in
the improper release of nearly 100 inmates over a period of five years
starting in 2004. 

Cresap, who was first elected to the bench in St. Bernard Parish in 1999,
was arrested by FBI agents in April 2009.

As part of Cresap's plea deal with the government, he agreed to cooperate
with prosecutors and potential grand juries in other cases.