By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | A rookie New Orleans cop has resigned after allegedly brandishing two guns during an off-duty altercation at a gas station on Friday, city officials said Monday. Swanier New Orleans Police Department Officer Devyn D. Swanier was booked with aggravated assault in the early morning hours Saturday, according […]
Category: Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Changes in NOPD's arrest policies save city nearly $2 million in jail fees so far this year
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | The city has saved $1.9 million so far this year in payments to Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman thanks to policy changes that have led to housing 300 fewer prisoners a day. But City Council Budget Committee Chairman Arnie Fielkow said the city’s financial relationship with Gusman […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Inmate's lawyer: Sheriff emptied women's jail after complaint to feds about conditions
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman moved his women prisoners from their separate facility at Orleans Parish Prison into a temporary tent next door after a complaint about conditions, the attorney who filed the complaint said Tuesday. Attorney Billy Sothern wrote to the U.S. Marshals Office on Feb. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Land Use, Schools
Animal House where pledges were scalded is targeted by Tulane for cop substation
1036 Broadway By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Tulane wants to build a police substation in place of a frat house that was closed after pledges were scalded with boiling water and crab boil in an ugly 2009 hazing incident. The case for demolishing the former Pi Kappa Alpha residence, at 1036 Broadway, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
City Council zaps 'aggressive' panhandlers in New Orleans business district
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | It’s no longer legal to borrow a paraplegic’s wheelchair and fake infirmity yourself – not if your intent is to soften the hearts of people you’re panhandling in the Central Business District. Downtown ATM machines? Do your begging elsewhere, as long as it’s not a bus or […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Criminal Court judges' attendance, time on bench vary widely, according to DA stats
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | Some of the city’s Criminal District Court judges are spending a lot more time on the bench than others, records compiled by the District Attorney’s Office show. At opposite ends of the scale for the 12 judges, Judge Robin Pittman spent 1,175 hours on the bench last […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
D.A. Cannizzaro fires back by releasing Judge White's attendance record
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro has retaliated against a critic by releasing numbers that he says show Judge Laurie White to have the poorest attendance record of the Criminal District Court’s 12 judges. White last week accused Cannizzaro of regularly orchestrating “pick and pleas” in his courtroom when […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Investigations
Some judges who were challenged by DA say he gamed the system when he was on bench
Cannizzaro’s impressive stats as a judge were sometimes inflated, say two current judges, as well as an attorney assigned to Cannizzaro’s courtroom. If true, his actions would raise ethical concerns.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Join us in examining sheriff's budget
Sheriff Marlin Gusman has provided the most detailed disclosure yet about the department’s revenues and expenditures.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics, Investigations
Sheriff's eyes bigger than inmates' bellies
With a pricetag now in excess of $80 million, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman has gone 50 percent over budget to build a kitchen, warehouse and power plant for his new jail complex.