Judge Drastically Reduces Jail Time For Officers Who Shot Unarmed People Fleeing Hurricane Katrina

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/GERALD HERBERT

Tabari Simpson, of the group 'Community United for Change,' protests outside Federal court in New Orleans, Monday, June 27, 2011, on the opening day of the trial for five current or former New Orleans police officers charged in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on the Danziger bridge in Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath. Five former officers already have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up to make it appear that police were justified in fatally shooting two people and wounding four others.

The people on the bridge were unarmed and frightened, fleeing homes left uninhabitable by Hurricane Katrina. Suddenly, a squad of plainclothes police officers drove up and opened fire, killing two and wounding four. The officers later conspired to cover up the whole affair with planted evidence and fabricated stories.

The officers on New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge that day in 2005 were sentenced back in 2011 to decades in prison. But earlier this year, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed their guilty verdicts to be overturned, paving the way for a new trial on the basis that federal prosecutors anonymously commented on stories about the case online.

On Wednesday, the former officers struck a deal with prosecutors that allowed them to plead guilty to lesser charges and significantly reduce their time behind bars. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled in favor of the deal’s terms, sentencing defendants to 3 to 12 years.

“Hopefully today will bring further closure to the victims of these crimes and this city,” he said.

Engelhardt who originally ordered the new trial, oversaw the deal, which shaved decades from the former officers’ original sentences. The deal cut 40-year sentences for Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius, Jr. to ten years each with credit for time served. Robert Faulcon, Jr., who was facing the lengthiest sentence at 65 years, subsequently faced 12 years with credit for time served. Anthony Villavaso and Arthur Kaufman, who were serving 38 years and six years respectively, got seven and three years. All the officers will also get five years of supervised release.

The former officers have been locked up for almost six years, and are now decades closer to release.

Four New Orleans police officers are seen in a combination of photos as they arrive for booking in New Orleans. From left: Robert Faulcon Jr., Robert Gisevius Jr., Kenneth Bowen, and Anthony Villavaso II.

CREDIT: AP PHOTOS

When handing down the original sentences in 2011, Engelhardt went on at length about the dangers of being a police officer and called out the names of five police officers who were killed in an unrelated 1973 sniper shooting, which the judge said had influenced his own views of police.

At the 2011 hearing, he bemoaned the fact that mandatory minimums were forcing him to dole out so much prison time. He also blasted the prosecutors’ handling of the case. In some cases, higher-up supervisors or colleagues agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against the officers in exchange for more lenient sentences for their own roles in the cover-up.

Cops Are Still Killing People, But The Nation Has Stopped Paying Attention

Protesters hold a rally at Austin City Hall in Texas to respond to a police officer fatally shooting 17-year-old David Joseph in February. 

The call came through Officer Geoffrey Freeman’s radio a few minutes before 10 a.m. on Feb. 8.

“Complaint that somebody jumped a fence and tried to chase a neighbor,” the police dispatcher in Austin, Texas, said. “Black male, tall, thin, wearing jeans, boxers.”

The dispatcher left Freeman with a final detail.

“No weapons,” she can be heard saying just before the call, later released to the public, cuts out.

Freeman headed toward the disturbance, which was taking place in a pocket of suburbia a couple of miles north of the University of Texas at Austin campus.

The last of a series of 911 calls relayed to Freeman reported a “totally nude black male” in the area. Freeman, a 10-year veteran of the force, called for additional units and continued his search.

Baltimore filmmakers to release documentary about mass incarceration of black men

Bobby Marvin Holmes and Justin Gladden know they aren’t the first people to examine racial disparities in the criminal justice system. But with their new documentary, they hope to join the conversation.

The filmmakers, both born and raised in Baltimore, will release “Free Young Blood: Combating the Mass Incarceration of Black Males” on Sunday. It’s the second installment in their three-part “Young Blood” documentary series, a term borrowed from 1970s blaxploitation films.

Holmes, 33, and Gladden, 31, studied journalism at Morgan State University and worked in Baltimore as community journalists before pursuing long-form storytelling about Baltimore’s youth. The topics of each documentary in the “Young Blood” series emerged naturally as Holmes and Gladden covered and interacted with their communities (the third installment will focus on education, with an expected 2019 release, they said).

“We had a little bit of experience, of course, covering the stuff, but we had to dig a lot deeper. We had to find out who was doing a lot of the groundwork,” Gladden said. “We were kind of shaky on what we wanted to do with it at first, and I think the audience told us what we should do with it.”

The duo's first documentary, “Live Young Blood,” released in 2013, centers around Baltimore’s “epidemic” of violence and community efforts to curb it; Holmes and Gladden feature interviews with mentors, activists, coaches and families affected by gun violence. The duo aims to take a similar solutions-based approach in “Free Young Blood,” which will also examine contributing factors to mass incarceration, such as drug policy and income inequality.

Former SC Police Officer Gets 3 Years’ Probation in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Black Motorist

A white ex-cop in South Carolina was sentenced to three years’ probation Monday in the fatal 2014 shooting of an unarmed black man, local media are reporting, according to Reuters.

Justin Craven, a former police officer in North Augusta, pleaded guilty to misconduct in office Monday and was given the probation sentence, as well as 80 hours of public service, local station WRDW reported. As part of a plea deal Monday, the felony charge against Craven was dropped. 

According to the Aiken Standard, Craven, 27, waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge. He faced up to one year in prison, along with a fine of up to $1,000, in addition to a felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, which could have meant up to 10 additional years in prison, a fine of up to $1,000 or both. 

“We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome, as far as the sentence is concerned,” Craven’s attorney Jack Swerling told reporters. “We got probation, no house arrest, and he’s pretty much free to go and live his life the way he wants. He’s got a young family, he’s got a job and, but for this incident in his life, he’s unblemished.”

Craven is the father of a 4-month-old, the Standard reports. Craven was indicted initially on the felony charge in May after discharging his weapon into a vehicle that was occupied, killing 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite. According to authorities, Craven had chased Satterwhite for 13 minutes, attempting to pull him over. Craven caught up with Satterwhite on a dirt road behind his home in February 2014, the Standard reports. Craven then exited his vehicle and approached Satterwhite in the car, firing at him several times through the car window. 

According to the arrest warrant, the now former officer admitted to firing into Satterwhite's car, Reuters reports. Prosecutors have said that there was a struggle at the car window. 

Chicago weighs cost, complexity of proposed police changes

CHICAGO (AP) — A day after a task force blasted the Chicago Police Department for decades of discrimination, law enforcement officials weighed which of the panel's recommendations could be adopted and how much they might add to Chicago's already heavy financial burdens.

The only thing that was clear about the group's 190-page report was that it can't be treated like critics say previous studies were — shoved into a desk drawer and forgotten.

"Either we act now and do the right thing or the Department of Justice is going to mandate that we turn and do the right thing," Alderman Anthony Beale said, referring to a separate review of Chicago police practices being conducted by the federal government.

The task force created late last year by Mayor Rahm Emanuel portrayed the Chicago department as a place where racist officers have been able to hide behind rules and procedures and police brutality was easily kept secret.

Chicago officers have "no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color," the panel's report said.

The report issued Wednesday also offered a list of suggested reforms, including increasing the number of body cameras and posting complaints against officers and their discipline records online for everyone to see.