Can Anyone Verify?

Reference here.

PANO's Frank DeSalvo directed the Human Resources Committee for current District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's transition team.

Who held the equivalent position under disgraced former DA Eddie Jordan?

Laughter Obscures Need for Introspection

Everyone has just had a ball teeing off on the corrupt Rod Blagojevich and crooked state of Illinois over the last week or so. Intelligent bloggers and bombastic blowhards came together to share a laugh.

How could he be so stupid?
In this day and age?
Hasn't he ever seen a movie or television show before?
Which state is the most corrupt?

Hardee har har.

I enjoyed it too, but at this point, I'm totally over it.

And no, it's not because I think Louisiana isn't getting enough credit for it's foibles.

It's because I think there is some wisdom to take away from the situation that is obscured when we marginalize Blagojevich or Illinois as anomalies.

Blogojevich is a thug and he should be put away for a good long while but I think it's useful to actually think about the different ways pay-to-play works instead of just laughing at Legojevich.


Everyone was just so appalled, not so much by the corruption but by Blagojevich's stupidity in getting caught. One of the things that I noticed some cable talking heads doing when discussing the Blagojevich scandal was a sort of half-hearted line drawing when it came to what was crime and what was just plain old politics. Some amount of political horse-trading is normal and sometimes necessary even, whereas trading a political horse for a personal money cow is a crime, or so the talking heads said on Hardball or whatever show I was watching.

But perhaps it's worth parsing this out a little bit.

I've noticed a pattern about the way some crooked or ineffectual politicians ultimately get taken down by the FBI. Guys like Edwin Edwards in Louisiana, Kwame Kilpatrick in Detroit, Vince Fumo in Philadelphia, or Rod Blagojevich in Illinois don't just get caught up in corruption indictments out of the blue. Rather, these politicians develop grand reputations for thuggery and graft far in advance of any kind of criminal investigation. That reputation coincides with a certain celebrity-centered political lifestyle. Power provides, reputation develops, power erodes and then lifestyle become unsustainable. This leads to increasingly desperate and risky shake-downs that often occur in earshot of federal investigators that have by this time found an actionable complaint from someone no longer intimidated or dependent upon the boss' political power.

This helps explain why politicians that develop vast public reputations for crookedness, even if they never end up getting accused of anything by a prosecutor become so defensive or walled off as time elapses. Ray Nagin might be demonstrating this kind of bunker mentality. Other good examples are former Mayor John Street in Philadelphia or, I dunno, President Bush and all of his lackeys. They exercise their right to remain silent, taking that route over the desperate 0-60 cliff dive demonstrated by Governor Blagojevich, or by former State Senator Shepherd, who had his own unique style.

Allegedly, one of things Blagojevich tried to do by leveraging this Senate appointment was to obtain a plum foundation board salary for he or his wife.

The governor, already dogged by allegations of crookedness and low approval ratings, was likely becoming quite concerned with his prospects for income after his term. Forget his delusions about running for President in 2016, I think the desperation for six figure cash is a way more telling indicator of where he really knew he stood deep down.

This allegation was for some reason treated as among the most shocking in Fitzgerald complaint. That's not to say the behavior isn't deplorable, because it is. But it isn't entirely out of the ordinary.

Or at least, it is treated as regular political behavior in some parts of the country.

Like in Louisiana.

I think back to District Attorney Eddie Jordan's resignation in October of 2007. The writing had been on the wall for quite some time at that point but he remained in office, determined to stay on the job even as veteran prosecutors quit and accused murderers were released on 701s.

Do you remember how his resignation was finally arranged?

Remember this headline:

Jordan's new job part of resignation

Jordan resigned from his post two weeks ago, saying he hoped his absence would allow people to work out some way for the judgment to be paid, forestalling a crippling shutdown of the office he led for almost five years. Though the settlement still looms over the office, Jordan's resignation assured him a private sector job arranged by business leaders.

"It is part of the package that was developed," said Robert Stellingworth, executive director of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group. The business community will pay for Jordan's consultancy, Stellingworth said.

The consulting gig, cemented through a contract signed last week, is not a full-time job, said Stellingworth, who declined to give the amount Jordan will be paid.

"We believe he can add some perspective" to the foundation's work, Stellingworth said. The business community has remained in talks about the legal settlement but committed no private money to pay it. Lapeyre, who described himself as an "adviser" to the city on the issue, last week sat in on a meeting between Mayor Ray Nagin and Landrum-Johnson.

Quite literally, the former District Attorney Eddie Jordan nearly forced a total shut down of the criminal justice system, relenting only when he was able obtain a well-paying foundation job for himself.

Mayor Nagin needed to call in "the business community" to do him this favor, to find a job for Eddie Jordan. And "the business community" came through for the Mayor, placing him under Richard Stellingsworth at the Police and Justice foundation. His salary would be paid, not by the foundation, but by "the business community," all as arranged by "adviser" Jay Lapeyre, President of the New Orleans Business Council.

Isn't this exactly what Mr. Blagojevich was trying to arrange for himself in Illinois in exchange for the Senate seat?

Here in New Orleans, we allowed the same exact thing to occur out in the open. It was reported right there in the paper and nobody really batted an eye.

We never did learn if Mr. Lapeyre or "the business community" asked for or received anything in return.

Lucky for us Mayor Nagin doesn't get to pick Senators. He only gets to decide municipal policy.

Just Great

I thought Jordan's head on a platter was a positive step. What about the good faith payment of 300,000?

Why this now?

I know Nagin didn't include y'all in the 2008 budget, but it's not final.... ah jeez.

We NEED those tanks...

Go see Dangerblond.

Greenwave Basketball Tonight! Hurray America!

A Scandal-Plagued New Orleans Public Official Resigns

The District Attorney for the City of New Orleans, Eddie Jordan, has resigned.

From the Times-Picayune:

As District Attorney Eddie Jordan descended last week to his moment of greatest political vulnerability, a group of prominent business leaders met with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to craft an exit strategy for the beleaguered prosecutor -- one that chiefly involved giving him a soft landing in a private sector job, sources familiar with the talk said Tuesday.

They knew the $3.7 million legal debt Jordan's office -- the result of a jury verdict ruling that he racially discriminated against white employees -- faced a seizure of the office's assets and disruption of his staff's salaries. Jay Lapeyre, the president of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region, acknowledged that business leaders, Nagin and Jordan discussed finding the district attorney -- his professional reputation deeply scarred -- a way to make a living after leaving office.

"Mr. Jordan has some skills," he said. "The challenge was to match those skills up for some period of time. That is what we tried to work through.

I decided to highlight that last part because it made me smirk when I read it.

I wish this fixed everything right away, but it doesn't. It should make it easier to find a solution for paying out the 3.7 million dollar lawsuit settlement that Eddie Jordan burdened us with before he left.

I think it was very nice of everyone to hold this all up for weeks just to make sure a prominent city business could find enough room to stash Mr. Jordan where he won't screw anything up and could still have a title prestigious enough to cushion his ego.


It's not everyday that a New Orleans public official resigns after being incessantly dogged by charges of corruption and/or incompetence.

Normally they just stay in office for ever and ever.

In our wildest fantasies Eddie Jordan is a trend-setter.

Would our beloved business leaders (are they the only ones able to negotiate anything with the mayor?) please maybe work on some cushy private sector jobs for any one of the following:

State Senator Derrick Sheppard

US Congressman William Jefferson

Mayor C. Ray Nagin

These guys are also guilty of poisoning the business environment here, no? If you can find a job for Eddie Jordan you can find one for these fellas too.

Derrek, William, C. Ray, take a hint.
Eddie Jordan was the city's most-maligned public official yesterday. Y'all stand in a line right next to ya boy.

No Kidding. Didn't See It Coming.

Law not clear on takeover of DA's office

I expected this to go so smoothly. I didn't expect Louisiana's archaic and incomplete system of governance to slow this thing up at all.

Is there any issue in this state in which the law is clear?

They do this on purpose to keep the people down!!!!!

I work for a living. Peace.

Could Life Get Worse For Eddie Jordan?

This is our Distract Attorney. He is in charge of the criminal justice system.


That means it is his job to take the suspects arrested by the police to court and get the necessary conviction to send them to jail. This is an important job here in New Orleans because we have a particularly high rate of crime, it is sad to say. The number of murders this year has already surpassed our total from last year.

Eddie Jordan does not have an easy job. There are lots of cases to prosecute. It must be very difficult to secure convictions, especially in murder cases where witnesses often recant, if they come forward at all.

It is a difficult job indeed. How can you expect results from the DA's office when top prosecutors are resigning left and right.

Now people are expecting him to possibly make budget cuts to pay for a $3.7 Million lawsuit bill that Jordan's office owes to former employees improperly fired in 2003 on the basis of race.

What can the man do besides threaten to shut down the criminal justice system?

But not even this strategy will faze anyone. Oyster asks "If the DA's office shut down, would anyone notice a difference?"

So what is Eddie Jordan to do? The man needs some sort of distraction to divert attention from this impending showdown with City Council. Now, what would divert ......

Robbery suspect fled to DA's house
(that's also an attempted murder suspect, too)

Naturally, Eddie Jordan has been an uncooperative witness for police in this case, ignoring repeated phone calls over a three day period..... I mean, when a child is raised in an environment in which a certain behavior is the norm....

Bloggers are working round-the-clock to organize some sort of deal.... The city will pay the 3.7 million dollars if Eddie Jordan agrees to resign....

As if a New Orleans official would ever accept what amounts to some sort of bribe in exchange for anything.....

At this point, why even make a deal? I want to hang him out to dry. Let him shut down his office because he can't pay the employees he never should have hired because all of that money is going to pay the former employees he never should have fired. No bailout from the other city agencies that are also stretched to their brink. Take away Eddie's car, take away his office and his desk. Take away his pens and pencils and legal pads. Take away his suits and his briefcases. Take away his law books and his library. He doesn't use any of that boring work stuff anyway. He should have to bite the bullet and resign all by himself, why make it graceful now?

Embarrassing Dysfunction in N.O. Criminal Justice System

Today's Times-Picayune relays an incredible story emblematic of the challenges facing Orleans Parish prosecutors. It is a captivating and troubling read. It would be downright shocking if it wasn't EVERY DAY here in New Orleans.

Poor staff district attorney Francis X. deBlanc III (what a name) was all by himself last Friday, charged with being in three places at the same time to try three separate high-profile murder cases. This is from the Picayune:

"This was deBlanc's work pile for the day: three cases beset by delays and witness problems, all of which cast New Orleans under a national microscope because of the merciless nature of the crimes.

"As if that load weren't enough, deBlanc, 35, soon found himself facing another kind of pressure that has increasingly weighed on Orleans Parish prosecutors: judges fed up that the overworked, understaffed lawyers of District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office are holding up the courts' dockets."

"...deBlanc found himself the target of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Julian Parker, who was exasperated by deBlanc's absence from his courtroom while the prosecutor scurried around the courthouse, attending to the other cases."

The cases in question ain't for speeding. They are perhaps the most important cases currently in the court system, murders garnering national attention in which the NOPD miraculously was able to produce suspects in custody.

One case concerned the murder of Dinerral Shavers of the Hot 8 Brass Band.
Another was the trial of the man accused of gunning down five teens in 2006.
The third was the high profile murder case in which a mother is accused of giving her son a gun and instructions to carry out the shooting.

Each of the three stories, because of their more-sensational-than-usual nature, embarrassed the city in the midst of efforts to restore an appearance of order and safety to attract tourists and conventions.

So what is going on with the DA's office?

Ugh, where do we start?

Well, District Attorney Eddie Jordan seems to be at the center of a lot of controversies related to his ethics or more troubling, his basic competence in managing his office.

Way back in 2005, he cast the city thousands in damages after he was found to have improperly fired staffers because they were white.

This summer, he dismissed the case against the man accused of murdering the five teens because of a missing witness. After the witness was found by the NOPD within 24 hours, Jordan came under incredible fire from city council, with many calling for his resignation. Even his staunchest ally, C. Ray Nagin, threatened to open an investigation.

Instead, Jordan announced a sweeping reorganization of the District Attorney's office, promising immediate changes to more efficiently address the backlog of cases.

A few weeks later, those changes had done little to ease the pressure on the court system as judge Julian Parker publicly called out the DA.

Or one could point to the abrupt resignation of prosecutor Cate Bartholomew, one of the office's most experienced attorneys. Last Friday, she explained her resignation in a letter to the Times-Picayune:

While in trial on Rudolph Wade, I was also diligently preparing for the trial of State v. Eddie Harrison which was set for trial the following Tuesday, Sept. 18. Specifically, I was attempting to resolve open discovery matters.

I successfully accomplished this while in trial on the Rudolph Wade matter and received the missing materials late on Friday, Sept. 14.

For having done my job in the most diligent and efficient manner under the circumstances, I was placed in a position of defending my office's failures in front of Judge Julian Parker Sept. 18.

Then on Sept. 19, I was expected to be prepared to try a homicide case before Judge Camille Buras. Even with 10 years of experience and 117 trials, this was impossible.

Shortly before my abrupt resignation, I received a phone call from defense counsel on the trial of State v. Michael Davis stating she had not received complete discovery in that matter.

The Davis case is set for trial before Judge Julian Parker on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Hearing that, I knew I could not walk in front of Judge Parker, a judge for whom I have a great deal of respect, and explain to him the exact same failings of my office that had occurred Sept. 18.

I have had enough. My physical health and emotional well-being are not worth $80,000. Neither is my professional reputation.

And then you've got what transpired last Friday as reported in today's paper.

After Francis X. deBlanc III finished his work on one case, judge Bigelow warned him he wouldn't be helping to explain why the prosecutor's office was incapable of making its scheduled appearances. From the Times-Picayune:

"Once you're out the door, you're on your own," Bigelow told deBlanc as Jordan, the district attorney calmly sat behind his prosecutors in the front row for several hours. He remained silent as the pressure rained down on one of his top prosecutors.

Maybe I'm not familiar enough with New Orleans politics or Orleans Parish Criminal Court to read between the lines.

Why won't Eddie Jordan just resign already? None of these episodes could possibly be any fun for him. Would it have been possible for him to help out his man deBlanc? Is it customary for the DA of a major city to work cases personally? If it is, why isn't Jordan himself handling at least one of these important cases? If it is not, is it then customary for the DA to sit for hours in court as a spectator as opposed to, oh I don't know, working?

I'm serious. What is keeping Eddie Jordan in office? Who is propping him up? Does the Mayor have the legal authority to fire him?

Maybe it shouldn't be so hard to understand. Eddie Jordan's name is in the newspaper every day. He might be the most famous District Attorney in the country. He's getting the brand out there. When is Eddie Jordan launching his line of perfumes? It's a subtle scent, virtually undetectable.