NEW ORLEANS — Five former police officers were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in federal court on Wednesday for the shootings of six unarmed civilians, two of whom died, in the days after Hurricane Katrina, and for orchestrating a wide-ranging cover-up afterward.
The four policemen who were directly involved in the shootings were sentenced to terms ranging from 38 to 65 years, and a police sergeant who was overseeing an investigation into the shootings, and instead led the efforts to hide and distort what happened, was sentenced to six years.
But while the sentences were long, they were not nearly as long as federal prosecutors were seeking — in some cases less than a third of the sentence they recommended — and for the most part were either the mandatory minimum or several years more than the minimum.
Before delivering the sentences, Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana gave a lengthy speech condemning the concept of mandatory minimum sentences and disparaging the case put together by federal prosecutors, saying in particular that he was “astonished” and “deeply troubled” by the plea deals with four cooperating witnesses at the heart of the case.
Afterward, prosecutors defended their actions, saying that the case was cold when the Justice Department picked it up, after a mishandled prosecution by the local district attorney and the dismissal of all charges by a judge in 2008.
“I’ve never seen an easy police case in my life,” said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, who called it the most significant police misconduct prosecution since the Rodney King case. “I have in particular observed in the New Orleans Police Department that the code of silence was seemingly impenetrable.”
Jim Letten, the United States attorney for the Eastern District, called the plea deals “not only appropriate but necessary” for a successful prosecution.
The five former police officers were convicted last August on a range of counts including federal civil rights violations and lying to investigators.
On Sept. 4, 2005, as much of New Orleans still lay submerged in floodwaters, Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius, then sergeants, and Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon, then officers, jumped in a Budget rental truck and raced with other officers to the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans, responding to a distress call on the police radio.
As soon as they arrived, witnesses at the trial said, they began firing on members of the Bartholomew family, who were trying to find a grocery store. A 17-year-old family friend named James Brisette was killed, and four others were severely wounded.
The police then began to chase two brothers, Lance and Ronald Madison, who was 40 years old and mentally disabled, who were trying to get to the other side of the bridge. Ronald Madison was shot in the back by Officer Faulcon and then stomped on by Sergeant Bowen as he lay dying.
The four who were involved in the actual shooting came into the sentencing hearing on Wednesday facing a minimum of 35 years because of mandatory sentencing guidelines. Former Officer Faulcon was facing at least 65 years.
A cover-up began immediately and eventually grew to include made-up witnesses and a planted handgun. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, a veteran investigator, was charged with overseeing much of the cover-up. He came into court on Wednesday without a mandatory minimum.
NYT
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