Oct 17, 2018 - After 13 years, post-Katrina hate crime case culminates in guilty plea
After 13 years, post-Katrina hate crime case culminates in guilty plea
The last open case involving civil rights abuses in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina culminated Wednesday in a guilty plea and a white man's admission that he shot three black men walking through his neighborhood because he regarded them as potential looters whom he referred to by racist epithets.
Roland Bourgeois, 55, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a hate crime and illegal weapons usage for firing a shotgun at and striking three black men in Algiers Point three days after Katrina devastated the city 13 years ago. The men were seeking to evacuate the flooded city.
In exchange, prosecutors dismissed charges that Bourgeois had conspired with others to carry out his actions and then lied to federal investigators in hopes of covering up the attack.
U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon set Bourgeois’ sentencing date for Jan. 17.
If she approves of Bourgeois' plea deal, he would face between five and 10 years in prison; prosecutors are pushing for the top end of that range.
Bourgeois could withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to a trial if Lemmon rejects his deal as too lenient.
Bourgeois’ case was among several involving allegations of excessive use of force after Katrina flooded most of the city when the levees broke in several places. The federal government prosecuted those cases after local officials initially declined to act.
They included the police killings of James Brissette and Ronald Madison on the Danziger Bridge, Henry Glover in Algiers, and Danny Brumfield in front of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Police officers were charged in each of those cases, which all produced at least one conviction.
Although Bourgeois wasn’t a cop, the racial aspects of his case attracted scrutiny from investigative journalist A.C. Thompson and later the U.S. government.
On Wednesday, prosecutors read a summary of the case that Bourgeois had signed off on. The document described how he and other Algiers Point residents set up a sort of vigilante patrol to shield their homes and belongings from — in their words — "n****rs ... tearing up" the city in the wake of Katrina.
That remark appeared to be a reference to reported and rumored break-ins in the chaos of the flooded city. The group used fallen trees to barricade streets and armed themselves with guns, including Bourgeois' then-teenage son, who was given a pistol, prosecutors said.
The three black men encountered Bourgeois near his home on Vallette Street as they headed to a nearby ferry terminal that was a makeshift evacuation point.
Bourgeois aimed a shotgun at them and pulled the trigger without warning, hitting all three and seriously injuring one. The feds said Bourgeois boasted that he "got one" and — uttering a racial epithet — threatened to kill him if he survived.
He later displayed like a trophy the bloodied baseball cap that fell from one of the wounded men, Donnell Herrington.
Prosecutors once had said Bourgeois hit only one of his targets. But on Wednesday they said he had wounded all three.
Lemmon asked Bourgeois if the allegations read by a prosecutor were true.
Wearing shackles and an orange prisoner's jumpsuit, he hesitated for a few moments before saying, "Uh, yes, your honor."
Doubts over Bourgeois’ health resulted in more than a dozen delays in his case after he was initially charged eight years ago, though details of his health problems have largely been kept under seal.
In 2014, Lemmon ruled he was physically unable to endure a trial after he had pleaded not guilty.
Yet last year, a Tulane University psychiatrist determined Bourgeois had regained the capacity to go through a trial. Authorities rearrested him and charged him with an unspecified bail violation, and Lemmon had him medically evaluated again.
At the conclusion of the evaluation, Lemmon ordered Bourgeois to stand trial Nov. 26. But last week he indicated he would rather plead guilty.
He appeared in court Wednesday holding a walking cane and answered Lemmon's questions in a soft voice. After saying he had studied geology in college, he acknowledged undergoing psychiatric treatment and said he suffered from "nightmares and stress."
U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser's office hasn't publicly discussed its decision to strike a plea deal with Bourgeois. However, if Lemmon approves the deal, Bourgeois would forfeit his right to appeal his conviction.
