Five former New Orleans police officers pleaded guilty Wednesday and were sentenced in connection with the deadly shootings of six unarmed people on the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina.
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The officers – Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and Officer Robert Faulcon, as well as a detective, Arthur Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shooting – were initially indicted on state charges.
Ronald Madison, 40, and 17-year-old James Brissette – both unarmed – were shot dead when the officers opened fire on the bridge days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.
In an attempt to cover up their misconduct, the officers planted a gun, named fake witnesses and falsified reports, according to prosecutors.
Bringing to a close the 11-year saga of the Danziger Bridge shootings, five former New Orleans police officers received sentences of up to 12 years in the shooting of a half-dozen civilians. However, fast-forward almost two years later and the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Engelhardt’s decision, setting the stage for the guilty pleas that were accepted today.
Their pleas and the sentencing came more than a decade after the high-profile shooting on the Danziger Bridge, which drew national scrutiny that, in many ways, preceded the ongoing national focus on how police officers use deadly force.
Even with these plea deals, the five former officers aren’t out of hot water just yet. Kaufman, involved in the cover-up of the 2005 shooting, received a 6 year sentence in 2012, while the other four received sentences of 38, 40, and 65 (for Faulcon) years in prison.
In response, federal prosecutors accused Engelhardt “of overstepping his bounds and exaggerating the impact” of the online comments, as local newspaper The Advocate reported. Now, the officers will get credit for time served, and the four who are still in prison could be released in one to six years.
Arthur Kaufman, accused of helping cover up the incident, was sentenced to three years in prison, half of his sentence at the first trial.
On Wednesday, the five officers who had been convicted pleaded guilty to more than a dozen combined counts.
Lance Madison, who was with his brother Ronald when he was killed and who was falsely arrested that day, said he and his family are still suffering. Despite the murkiness of many of these killings, prosecutors and police officials looked the other way for years. The deal sharply reduces the penalties they faced before their initial convictions were overturned in 2013 over prosecutorial misconduct.
The case was not about a particular jail sentence, it was about accountability, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite said Wednesday.
The Danziger case and other police scandals led to a federal investigation of the New Orleans Police Department and eventually, court-ordered reforms. “I finally got what I wanted: Someone confessed, ‘I did it'”.
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The Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, took to Twitter to show his support for the victims and their families.
