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U.S. »

Ex-NOPD cop admits role in cover-up of LA bridge shooting

March 11, 2010

(CNN) — A second former New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with police shootings of civilians on a Louisiana bridge in the days following Hurricane Katrina, authorities said.

Jeffrey Lehrmann, a former police detective who now works as a special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge that he failed to report a cover-up in the investigation of the Danziger Bridge shootings in New Orleans, the Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday.

Lehrmann also admitted he helped compile a false report on the incidents, and was with others when they planted a gun as part of the cover-up, according to court documents.

Last month, former police Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the cover-up.

Two civilians were killed and four others wounded in the shootings on September 4, 2005, six days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

In the first shooting, on the east side of the bridge, one person — later identified as James Brissette, 19 — was killed and four wounded, prosecutors said. In a second shooting, on the bridges west side, Ronald Madison, 40, a severely disabled man, was killed. Madisons brother was arrested but later released without indictment, authorities said.

"The police maintained that they fired at the civilians in self-defense, after the civilian fired at police," the statement said. "However … Lohman pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with other officers to cover up what he had determined was a bad shoot on the bridge. Today, defendant Lehrmann admitted that he also knew of and participated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice in the investigation of the shooting."

Lehrmann faces a sentence of up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced June 10, and Lohman faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his May 26 sentencing.

Jim Letten, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, said that while Lehrmanns conviction is the second in the case, "this officer was the first to enter into an agreement with the United States and provide cooperation."

Lehrmann learned from a New Orleans police supervisor, identified in court documents as "the investigator," that an officer had "shot an innocent man" on the bridge, prosecutors said in the Department of Justice statement, citing the documents. Upon hearing that comment, Lehrmann determined it was a "bad shoot," meaning it was not legally justified, authorities said.

"Lehrmann admitted that he participated with his supervisors in the creation of a report that included false statements by the officers involved in the shooting; false claims about a gun that had in fact been planted by the investigator; and fabricated statements from witnesses who did not really exist," prosecutors said.

"Lehrmann also admitted that the report of the Danziger Bridge investigation included false statements alleged to have been given by two of the victims of the police shooting."

According court documents, Lehrmann said the report of the incident indicated the investigator had returned to the bridge the day after the shooting and found a gun in the grass below the scene of one shooting.

But Lehrmann said that story was "a lie." He told authorities that after the shooting, he and two sergeants drove with the investigator to the investigators home, where the investigator retrieved a bag from his garage. Asked what was in the bag, the investigator said, "A ham sandwich," according to the documents.

"Lehrmann then looked in the bag and saw a gun that would be used in the Danziger Bridge investigation," prosecutors said in the statement. "Once the investigator assured Lehrmann and the sergeants that the gun was clean, meaning it could not be traced to another crime, they all went along with the plan to plant the gun."

At the time of Lohmans guilty plea, authorities suggested that other indictments would follow. However, an information was filed in Lehrmanns case, showing he was not indicted. Informations can be filed when a defendant waives indictment by a grand jury, according to the federal courts Web site.

The shootings occurred after several officers, responding to a call for assistance, drove to the bridge and encountered six civilians who were walking across it to get food and supplies, according to the indictment filed in Lohmans case. The officers fired, killing Brissette, and then traveled to the other side of the bridge, where Madison was shot.

Madison was shot seven times — five times in the back, the coroner said. His brother, Lance, was arrested on suspicion of eight counts of attempted murder of a police officer and held for weeks before his release, according to the indictment.

State prosecutors pursued criminal charges against several police officers without success. In August 2008, a judge quashed indictments against Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius Jr., Officer Anthony Villavaso II and former Officer Robert Faulcon Jr., all of whom were facing first-degree murder and attempted murder charges. In addition, the judge threw out attempted first-degree murder charges against Officers Mike Hunter Jr. and Robert Barrios, and attempted second-degree murder charges against Officer Ignatius Hills. Federal prosecutors opened an investigation after the judges actions.

Legal scholars have said that while more might be indicted, its unclear whether any other officers will be charged in the shootings.

"Theres no evidence the officers shot out of malice," Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, said last month. "It was probably negligence, ratcheted up to a federal offense by the cover-up."

Politics »

Dems try to finish health care reform

March 11, 2010

Washington (CNN) — Health care reform takes center stage Thursday as President Obama and top congressional Democrats work behind closed doors to nail down a final agreement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who has sounded increasingly optimistic that she will be able to round up the 216 votes needed to pass the Senate health care bill — will host a meeting of the entire House Democratic caucus in the morning.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will try to build public momentum by framing the issue in more personal terms, holding a news conference with an 11-year-old boy whose mother died of pulmonary hypertension after losing her health insurance.

"We are making progress. A lot of decisions were made," Reid told reporters Wednesday. "I really believe the goal weve been seeking for a long time of health care reform is going to be done. We dont have it all worked out yet but we made a lot of progress."

Obama is set to discuss health care in afternoon and evening meetings with African-American and Hispanic members of Congress. He is also planning to take his increasingly populist, anti-insurance industry message back on the road early next week, delivering yet another reform speech in the political battleground state of Ohio.

The president delivered passionate, campaign-style health care stump speeches earlier this week in Pennsylvania and Missouri. Obama has dismissed questionable poll numbers about the Democratic reform plan, declaring the debate over and urging a final up-or-down vote on the matter in Congress.

"The time for talk is over," he said Wednesday in St. Charles, Missouri. "Its time to vote."

GOP leaders, meanwhile, remain furious over the Democratic strategy for passing an overhaul bill. If the House approves the Senate version of the bill, according to Democratic sources, a separate package of changes designed in part to make the overall measure more palatable to House liberals would then be approved by both chambers — getting through the Senate under a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation. Bills passed under in the Senate reconciliation require only a simple majority of 51 votes.

Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof 60-seat supermajority with the election in January of Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown to the seat formerly held by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Liberal House Democrats contend, among other things, that the Senate bill does not include an adequate level of subsidies to help middle- and lower-income families purchase coverage. They also object to the Senates proposed tax on expensive insurance plans.

Separately, a handful of socially conservative House Democrats argue the Senate plan doesnt do enough to ensure taxpayer funds are not used to fund abortions. Several political analysts have said lingering divisions over abortion may prove to be the toughest hurdle for Democratic leaders to overcome.

Republicans argue that reconciliation, which is limited to provisions pertaining to the budget, was never meant to facilitate passage of a sweeping measure along the lines of the health care bill.

Reid dismissed the GOPs arguments in a letter sent to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

"The reconciliation bill now under consideration would not be the vehicle for comprehensive reform — that bill already passed [the Senate] outside of reconciliation," Reid wrote.

"Instead, reconciliation would be used to make a modest number of changes to the original legislation, all of which would be budget-related. There is nothing inappropriate about this."

Four Senate Republicans who previously served in the House warned House Democrats in a news conference Wednesday that there is no guarantee the reconciliation strategy will succeed.

A unified Senate GOP caucus will fight to prevent changes promised by the Democratic leadership, they said.

House Democrats "better think long and hard" about voting for the Senate plan if they dont like it, said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota. "If you vote for the Senate-passed bill, you own the Senate-passed bill."

Sports »

Hoyas deal ’Cuse costly loss in Big East tourney

March 11, 2010

Chris Wright scored 27 points and No. 22 Georgetown sailed past No. 3 Syracuse with an impressive second-half surge, beating the top-seeded Orange 91-84 in the Big East tournament quarterfinals Thursday.