Five former New Orleans police officers deserve a new trial over the fatal shooting of unarmed people following Hurricane Katrina, a federal appeals court has ruled.
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Four of the men are charged in the shootings at the Danziger Bridge on 4 September 2005, a week after hurricane Katrina hit and levee failures led to catastrophic flooding.
Villvaso and three other officers charged with shootings all have been jailed since their federal indictment in 2010.
But in 2013, the convictions were thrown out by a federal judge who ordered a new trial, ruling that anonymous Internet postings by three high-ranking federal prosecutors before and during the trial unfairly prejudiced the case.
Initially, a state court had put the officers on trial, but a mistrial was declared, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in its ruling Tuesday.
The five former New Orleans Police Department officers are Arthur Kaufman, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso, Kenneth Bowen and Robert Faulcon. The fifth circuit majority strongly rejected their arguments.
Kaufman was released in the fall of 2013 after a judge ruled that he was entitled to a new trial.
The local former Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Sal Perricone and Jan Mann, posted anonymous comments to newspaper articles about the case through its duration.
Judge Edward Prado dissented. “I don’t expect a new trial to be held anytime soon”.
Tuesday’s decision comes less than two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the storm, which struck the Gulf Coast on 29 August 2005, causing widespread death and destruction in Mississippi and southern Louisiana. The city remained badly flooded, with utilities out everywhere and the police force under strain.
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At the time, police said officers were responding to reports that other officers had been injured when they came under fire. Police also said one of the men, Ronald Madison, was reaching for a gun. Seventeen-year-old James Brissette was killed in the volley of gunfire. Former sergeants Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius got 40 years for their roles in the incident, while ex-officer Robert Villavaso was sentenced to 38 years.
