April 18, 2011
Two New Orleans Police Officers Found Guilty in Beating Death
Special to Trice Edney News Wire from The Louisiana Weekly
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After more than 14 hours of deliberation over the course of three days, a federal jury has found two NOPD officers guilty of fatally beating a man in Faubourg Tremé nearly six years ago and attempting to cover up the incident.
The jury of seven men and five women began deliberating Monday, April 11 in the trial for a New Orleans police officer charged with beating a 48-year-old handyman to death and another officer charged with helping his partner cover up the deadly encounter.
Prosecutors said Officer Melvin Williams broke four of Raymond Robair’s ribs and crushed his spleen when he kicked and beat him with a baton after he and Officer Matthew Dean Moore approached the man while patrolling Faubourg Tremé nearly six years ago. Robair died of massive internal bleeding after the officers drove him to a hospital, according to prosecutors.
The officers deny beating Robair and claim he slipped and fell on a curb as they approached him on July 30, 2005, less than a month before Hurricane Katrina struck the city. The officers also said they suspected Robair had ingested drugs.
But the jury heard testimony during the trial from Tremé residents who said they saw Williams beat Robair.
“Williams believed he had the power to beat a man in broad daylight, in front of multiple witnesses and get away with it,” Justice Department attorney Forrest Christian told jurors during closing arguments Monday. “You know that Melvin Williams is not above the law.”
The officers’ lawyers tried to attribute Robair’s death to the hospital doctors who treated him for a heart attack for about 90 minutes before they discovered his spleen had ruptured.
Williams’ attorney, Frank DeSalvo, said before Wednesday’s verdict was read that he agrees with prosecutors that residents have a right to be free from unjustified use of force by police officers.
“By the same token, every man — rich or poor, drug addict or not — deserves to have the same medical treatment that you or I would get in a time of need, and (Robair) didn’t get it,” he said.
Prosecutors said the officers are to blame for the delay in treating Robair’s ruptured spleen because they lied to the doctors and nurses at Charity Hospital.
“If the defendants hadn’t done anything wrong, they would have told the doctors exactly what happened,” said Justice Department attorney Jared Fishman.Moore’s lawyer, Eric Hessler, said the officers responded properly and told the truth about their encounter with Robair.
“They did their best with what they knew,” he said.
Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally known forensic pathologist, testified as an expert witness for the defense. DeSalvo said Baden concluded that none of Robair’s injuries could have been caused by a police baton. Hessler said the doctors who treated Robair didn’t find any external injuries on him.
“You get hit with this, it’s going to leave a mark,” Hessler said, showing a baton to the jury.
The defense lawyers argued that residents who testified for the government gave inconsistent accounts of the alleged beating. Fishman said those “minor inconsistencies” are inevitable with the passage of time.
“They’re just neighborhood people who told you like they remember it,” he said.
Williams and Moore were found guilty on all charges. Judge Eldon Fallon revoked both officers’ bond and remanded them into custody. Their sentencing is set for July 14.
Williams faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. Moore could receive up to a 25-year sentence.
“Today’s verdict is evidence that we, and our partners in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and FBI, are absolutely committed to bring those who have violated the sacred rights of our citizens to justice, in the hope that our pursuit will give the people of New Orleans confidence in the protection of honest and professional law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday.
“Whoever you are, you’re not above the law,” Letten added. “You do not have the right to harm our citizens.”
As members of the Robair family wept and comforted one another outside the federal courthouse, attorney Eric Hessler said he was “surprised, shocked and disappointed” by the jury’s decision to convict his client, Officer Moore.
“I don’t think the verdict fit the evidence presented by the government,” Hessler said, suggesting that jurors might have been compelled to reach a guilty verdict by “emotion and perception instead of the evidence.”
“I believe the police department has been so maligned over the last few years that it is probably impossible for a policeman to get a fair trial in this city,” Frank DeSalvo, the attorney for convicted NOPD officer Melvin Williams, said Wednesday.
New Orleans resident Andy Cosby disagreed with DeSalvo and Hessler, telling FOX 8 News, “It is possible to get a jury from here as well as anywhere else. What are we going to do, import a jury from Dakota?” Tony Tullis, however, agreed that it would be difficult for a member of the New Orleans police force to get a fair trial in the city. “Well everyone around here is so tainted with the information that NOPD is dirty and corrupt,” he told FOX 8 News. “Even if they don’t know the case they’re still going with that mindset.”
“Every community relies upon their police officers to protect and serve, but these officers abused their power, violating the law and the public trust,” Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said after Wednesday’s verdict was read. “I am hopeful that today’s verdict brings a measure of justice to the victim’s family and the entire community.”
“I was waiting for this day,” Marie Robair, the victim’s mother, told reporters. “Now I can rest and my son can rest in peace.”
“It’s a humbling experience. It’s a learning experience,” said Judonna Mitchell, Raymond Robair’s daughter, said after the verdict was read. “It’s taught me to be patient and to be true to my own faith.”
The family of Raymond Robair has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved in his death and the police department.
“It’s important to remember that we’re just getting started,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a former radio talk-show host and businessman, told The Louisiana Weekly. “The cases heard thus far are but the tip of the iceberg. For every cop convicted as a result of the Justice Department probe thus far, dozens have already gotten away with murdering and abusing the constitutional rights of New Orleans residents.
“We can’t rest or let down our guard until the purging of the New Orleans Police Department has run its full course. The attitudes of some of the officers in the department and recent statements made after the DOJ report make it clear that this struggle is far from over. It’s not going to happen overnight but it can and must happen if residents are to ever have a police department they can trust and respect.”
Ramessu Merriamen Aha credited Community United for Change (CUC) for the painstaking work it has done in documenting the negative experiences many New Orleans families have had with the NOPD and spurring the DOJ to follow through on its promise to fully investigate the department and its operations.
Members of Community United for Change have been distributing copies of the Department of Justice report on the NOPD to New Orleans residents and held a meeting Thursday to carry through on its commitment to closely monitoring changes made in the New Orleans Police Department.
“Now that we have the attention of the USDOJ we must continue the work we started and have our work placed into the legal document that will compel the NOPD to follow the Federal Mandates or suffer serious penalties if they do not comply,” CUC member W.C. Johnson wrote in a letter to residents last week. “CUC is beginning a new set of Town Hall meetings throughout the city once again to inform and solicit from our friends and neighbors the exact language they want to see the NOPD governed by.
“CUC wants you to be a part of that meeting, just like you were a part of the efforts that convinced the USDOJ that the NOPD was involved in severe violations of the constitution of Louisiana and the United States,” Johnson added. “Your participation is vital for the success of this next phase of reforms for the NOPD to be deemed complete.”
“We respect the judgment of the jury and will immediately suspend Officers Williams and Moore pending our next administrative steps,” NOPD Superintendent
Ronal Serpas said in a statement released Wednesday. “I have a strict zero-tolerance policy for misconduct within the New Orleans Police Department. We will continue to work diligently to ensure transparency, accountability, collaboration and integrity within the New Orleans Police Department to regain the public’s trust. What these two men did that day in 2005 was reprehensible. It is offensive that they wore the uniform of the NOPD.
“I would hope that the people of New Orleans recognize that the vast majority of our officers are dedicated public servants whose ambition is to protect our neighborhoods on a daily basis,” Serpas continued. “I am continuing to implement initiatives that will transform this police department into an exemplary force that’s respected nationwide.”
“As we recognize victims’ rights this week, today’s verdict is evidence that we, and our partners in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and FBI, are absolutely committed to bring those who have violated the sacred rights of our citizens to justice, in the hope that our pursuit will give the people of New Orleans confidence in the protection of honest and professional law enforcement,” Letten said.
The Robair case is one of several probes of alleged New Orleans police misconduct opened by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Of the 20 current or former officers who were charged in those probes, Williams and Moore are the only ones prosecuted for acts that occurred before Hurricane Katrina.
The Raymond Robair murder case is the second to be tried. In December, a jury convicted three former NOPD officers in the death of 31-year-old Henry Glover, who was shot by a police officer outside a strip mall in Katrina’s aftermath before another officer burned his body inside a car on a Mississippi River levee.
A trial is scheduled to begin in June for five current or former officers charged in deadly shootings on the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and an alleged conspiracy to make the shootings appear justified. Another trial is slated to be held in August for two NOPD officers charged with lying under oath about the fatal shooting of a man outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center shortly after Hurricane Katrina.◊