Jim Letten's true nature to be revealed?

WARNING- LONG, MEANDERING POST AHEAD:

After a lot of wondering about what Letten is really up to, it appears that something big is finally in motion.

Jim Letten is the Federal Prosecutor for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He was Eddie Jordan's chief assistant and did most of the heavy lifting in the Edwin Edwards case.

After Jordan left to become Orleans DA, Letten was appointed by Bush. After taking down most of the Morial administration and nailing Oliver Thomas, Jim Letten has been extraordinarily quiet. Very little visible action was taken after the NOAH story broke. The only brief interruption was when the crime camera report from the OIG office came out.

Supposedly, Cerasoli had been sitting on the report for months, at the behest of Jim Letten, who didn't want to endanger ongoing investigations. Cerasoli had to leave for health reasons and had the report released shortly after he left for Boston, straining the relationship between the OIG and Jim Letten's office.

Now, there's a lot of speculation out there about why Letten's office has been so quiet for so long. The dark side of the speculation says he's a Rovian attack dog (along the lines of the Donald Siegelman case)), bent on taking down only Democrats. As evidence, they cite the Canal Street Madam case early in his career. Letten took down a major brothel that served many of New Orleans' movers and shakers. Allegedly, Letten shut the investigation down early because too many Republicans including a few national Republicans, were in the Madam's little black book. There's also a flagrant violation of the Travel Act that has yet to see the inside of a courtroom.

Furthermore, remember that Nagin's most loyal backers are Republicans (the "Couhig Conservatives") and Greg Meffert, Nagin's Pampy Barre, is a behind the scenes player with the local Republicans (Intelliport, a Meffert company, put together Joe Cao's new website).

Recently, Nagin's been acting like he know's he's untouchable, either because he has friends in high (Federal) places or because he knows that any indictment of him could tear this city to pieces. Take a look at Jeffery's character portrait of Nagin. Lots of interesting points. Nagin plays the fool, but the joke's on us. Some of Nagin's theatrics below:



He makes the reporters act like total fools (and the reporters are dumb enough not to even realize it).

So, could the much beloved "Dragon-Slayer" really be in on a bigger corruption racket?

There could be a lot of innocent explanations for the delays. First off, corruption cases are VERY hard to put together for one big reason (amongst many others): politicians tend to hire very good defense attorneys. Cases have to be airtight. If you're outside looking in, it can be very hard to put all the pieces into place in a way that will stand up in court, especially if you don't have a snitch (or does Letten have a snitch in Nagin's administration?). Also, the Federal Prosecutor is required to have a certain percentage of his prosecutors on violent crime cases (generally putting local thugs who work through the revolving door local justice system into the federal system on gun charges).

There's no definite evidence to say that Letten is either assisting the corrupt (knowingly or unknowingly) or is just trying to put together a case in tough circumstances.* Whether or not Meffert goes down, or if it's just smaller players, could finally settle the matter, though.

It's getting exciting. I don't know what I'm looking forward to more: the ending of Battlestar Galctica, or what Letten's next moves are.

_______________
*For the record, I think it's the latter. Full disclosure, my dad used to work for a friend of Letten's and used to go to lunch with his boss and Letten. He's always spoken highly of Letten.

UPDATE- Detailed analysis of the legal implications for some of the lawyers involved. A whole lot of lawyers (Tracie Washington, Penya Moses-Fields) probably deserve to be disbarred.

If you really want to get down to business, look at the offsite backups. That will tell you instantly what's going on. Any monkey business with those tapes and you have a serious federal offense.

For real tinfoil-hat territory, Ciber, a Meffert company, was a security contractor for Premier Election Solutions [Diebold]. Nagin, whose reelection depended on higher than expected turnout at satellite voting stations in Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, etc. might have gotten an extra boost from Ciber/Diebold audited machines at those polling stations...

[SIC!]

I'm going to rip off The eXile and publish a few nasty comments I got with some (deserved) skewering.

*****************
DAT'S RACISTT!
Iknow it's popular among some folks to describe Jordan as a "convicted racist," but that's wrong, if for no other reason than the implication that racism is a criminal offense for which one can stand trial. [You are correct. Unfortunately, stupidity is also in the same category.] It's also wrong because if he'd had such irate opposition to the presence of white people, he'd have fired the white folks on his legal staff, but he didn't.

Well Jarvis is he or is he (jordan) not a convicted racist. [Actually, I've always written that Jordan tried to turn the DA's office into a political patronage position to benefit his mentor, $Bill, but I guess that's too complicated for you and your buddy Jarvis. I thought that Times-Picayune was supposed to be written for 8th graders, but now I realize that's too high a standard for the likes of you.] I guess its hard to admit that your friend is a racist when you think so much like him. [OH NO! Someone else besides Jay Arena knows our secret!] Your true colors were shown in this article now everyone else knows your a racist too. [And now, everyone knows what a dumbass you are.]

If Jordan wasn't a racist and Incompetent why did he resign. I'm sure your next racist article will try to spin it. [Actually, now that he's done the honorable thing and fallen on his sword, I was going to give him a break, but I might have to go to his house and take a dump on his front porch just for you...]

*****************

Royal Alexander hearts Pedophiles
Royal Alexander didn't cover up a damn thing for Mark Foley. It was Royal Alexander and Congressman Rodney Alexander who finally put a stop to it. [Ah yes, he learned about it in 2005 and he had a secret plan to take out Mark Foley 47 Ronin-Style. The plan was still underway when those damned liberal media broke the story! 'Damn you, hippies! You ruined my plan to take over the world protect the cute bouncing buns of little boys!] You haven't a clue what you are talking about. the behavior had been going on for ten years prior to Royal's arrival. [Actually, probably a lot longer than that...] Royal notified the house leadership on four seperate ocassions. the only thing you said that is correct is that Buddy Caldwell has a hard on for Edwin Edwards. [At least he doesn't cover the tracks of people with hard ons for little boys.] I will add that he is slightly harder for Eddie Jordan, about whose extraordinary incompetence Caldwell "doesn't know". [Umm, this might sound hard to believe, but Louisianaians outside of New Orleans don't believe the entire state revolves around the Crescent City...]

Royal could make this whole thing disappear by making all his email and correspondence public, but there's no way in hell he's doing that. He wants this incident to disappear from the public consciousness. He's lucky in that Buddy Caldwell seems to be giving him some slack on that front. From every poll I've seen, he can afford to because he's got a pretty hefty lead. Also, it's a good thing he doesn't have many "friends" like you throwing rocks into hornets nest about episodes he's rather not talk about. Do you really think he wants to be answering questions about what he did or didn't do relative to Mark Foley? No way in hell.

*****************

I allow anonymous comments, but some people are abusing the privilege. Keep it up fuckers and I'll start posting IP addresses and fingering the guilty parties...

The Beginning of the End for "the Hat"

Eddie Jordan is going down like the Titanic

Felt bowler hat from the Titanic

Jordan has become a plague upon his own house. We all knew he looked out for criminals... Now it's just official.

When even Cynthia Hedge-Morrell is throwing you under the bus, you've got some serious problems.

I like DA Connick's theory that all of his woes can be traced back to firing of the investigators. The thesis holds more and more credibility as time goes on. Letting William Jefferson's Chief of Staff run his transition team was a fatal mistake and he has no one to blame but himself for that fuckup.

This will probably be the end of him. These two are just grand standing to their constituency, but think about it: who at the state level is going to vote AGAINST impeaching Jordan? Nobody outside of New Orleans. The only reason I can see that this won't take him down is if Officer Dukes passes away. I'm sure everyone (especially Eddie Jordan) is praying for Officer Dukes to recover. He's still in critical condition, as far as I know. I think that if Dukes dies, there's no way Jordan can avoid jail time. Sheltering a cop killer is one thing that NOBODY will abide by.

Oh yeah, and in the meantime, NOPD/DA Office relations will be just fine and peachy.

Politics roundup

Vitter is going to Iraq. He heard about the cheap hookers.

So, how's Jordan's "elite" prosecutor unit doing? Not so well...

Here's one link you won't see on Dead Pelican... Honestly, I think this whole mess is getting blown out of proportion. Not that much to see.

So, let's get this straight, DHS, which is in charge of securing our borders, is one of the nation's largest employers of illegal immigrants...

Holy Fucking Shit! I can't believe this was a serious article! Bush: Global Dictator.

Some photos of O.T. Gettin Jiggy Wit It...

Clancy DuBose going to WWL. This could turn out to be a huge coup for WWL and help them keep WDSU from overtaking them. WDSU has been nipping at their heels as of late...

Mark Fiore cartoon about the "New Orleans Brand." A must see.

Hurricane Dean / Hurricane "Da Hat"

The Corps is now hard at work trying to drown Canada and St. Louis...

Also, Eddie Jordanlost his appeal. The taxpayers of New Orleans will have to pay for his mistakes. Remember, he used William Jefferson's Chief of Staff to turn the DA's office into a political patronage position for $Bill... My favorite hire was replacing their a key ballistics expert with someone who's only experience was "some office work at a law firm and as a lifeguard." (Hit the Eddie Jordan tag to pull up the archives on him...)

PDF copy of the Court's findings. Is it just me or does this document make him look like an even bigger moron? Any lawyers want to chime in?

Articles to check out

Church's list keeps names of murder victims alive. Great work.

Condotels coming to New Orleans. This is about the last thing we need. I've got some family members who live in Ocean Springs and everyone on the coast HATES condotels. They are basically sanctioned absentee landlords. People buy a room in the hotel, get the revenues, the management takes a small cut, and all sorts of people come through. The owners are under pressure to keep the rooms full, so they'll let anyone in and if they make themselves a nuisance, there's nobody you can really talk to. There's not one landlord. Also, you can't really pressure the company, because it's not their units. Besides, New Orleans already has a glut of both condos and hotels.

Are we reliving 1929? Interesting article. Tough to follow, though. That's why NOBODY in the mainstream media covers complex financial issues.

Re-Engineer the Corps. And it's not a Louisianian calling for the reform...

Homeless camp near city hall. I suggest it be named either "Bushville" or "Nagin Town."

It's Not Our Fault. Excellent (albeit long) blog post.

Recall Jordan website up and running. Oh yeah, and he continues his run of perfection.

Depressing thought of the day

Ministers defend Jordan.

I've met some great people doing good work for New Orleans. Brian Denzer, Ashe Dambala, and others. They work hard to make this a great city. But, there are lots more bastards doing their damnedest to destroy the city, and it's much easier for a pack of morons to destroy a city than a small cadre of geniuses to build up a city.

There's no question that people have had an effect but is it enough? I sometimes feel like the 600:


Half a league half a league
  Half a league onward
All in the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade
Charge for the guns' he said
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
  Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die,
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
  Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turned in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
  All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them
  Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
  All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
  Noble six hundred!


Back to work...

Poll Results - Midura's Letter

Taking the poll down, now that it's done. Wanted to preserve the results, though.

-------------------------------

Is the "Special Prosecutor" an acceptable alternative to Councilwoman Midura's letter?

Yes

15 (21%)

No

54 (78%)



Votes so far: 69
Poll closed

Louisiana's Second Most Retarded Politician

WDSU Video of Midura and Jordan sparing. Who are these idiots cheering Jordan? What crackhead would EVER clap for Jordan? Oh yeah, Dirnell Shavers' murderer...

Guess what, Midura ain't alone in calling for your resignation. My memory might be a little fuzzy on this one, but aren't these state legislators Progressive Democrats? Can someone help me out with this fact?

Jordan dodged and weaved at today's City Council meeting. Looks like Jordan is practicing the 5 D's (dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge). If only we could throw hammers and wrenches at his worthless ass! He actually had the gall to try to change the subject from him releasing murderers to him bragging about his success forcing deadbeat dads to pay up. My councilman, Mr. Carter, called him on his total bullshit. Good job! Now, you just need represent your district and call for his resignation.

Even Anderson Cooper is getting in on the Jordan-bashing.

And the hits just keep on coming...

RESIGN! YOU SUCK SO MUCH, YOU MAKE THE 1980 SAINTS LOOK LIKE THE 2006 SAINTS!

UPDATE- "I do not intend to resign, so you can put that out of your mind," Jordan said. Fucker.

More Garland Robinette

Midura explains her letter.

Foti talks with Garland... Garland rips him a new one. Garland quotes Foti's best friend of 30 years describing Foti as, "completely unreliable." Foti hangs up...

Jordan Appeasers/Vote in Poll at top

I continue to be pissed off as hell, and I'm only getting madder.

This morning, Cynthia Hedge Morrell disavowed Ms. Midura's statement and said it was "not the best option..." You can read her statement here. View the video here.

Ms. Midura's letter is the ONLY VIABLE OPTION at this point. The City Council has TRIED working with Jordan. They've shown him infinite patience. They've given him extra funding. They have given him everything he's asked for and he STILL fails miserably.

Anyone who disavows Ms. Midura's letter is a Jordan Appeaser. Period.

I called Fielkow's office and his office confirms that Ms. Midura's letter is "not the best option at this time."

For their actions disavowing Ms. Midura's letter, I hearby label Councilman Fielkow and Councilwoman Morrel Jordan Appeasers...

I just recieved this email from Councilwoman Head's Office:

Calling for Mr. Jordan's resignation, while potentially making me feel
good, will have absolutely no positive impact on the operations of his
office. A recall and an impeachment are likewise futile efforts.
Instead, along with several of my colleagues, I am asking the Supreme
Court to exercise its legal power and appoint a special prosecutor to
immediately step into the D.A.s office and make needed changes therein.
Such changes will have immediate impact such as assuring that
experienced prosecutors are assigned to murder cases instead of
inexperienced attorneys like Ms. Webb, who handled the Anderson case.

Stacy Head
Councilmember, District B

While not publicly calling for Jordan's resignation, her position appears to differ from the position Councilwoman Morrell described this morning. She appears to not only call for the Special Prosecutor to take over the quintuple murder case, but also the entire DA's office! Hire the state to do Jordan's job for him! I've got a letter in to her office for clarification.

UPDATE- Here's the latest response:

I did not hear C. Morrell, so I am not sure what her position is.
However, the letter that I co-authored to Justice Calogero requests a
special prosecutor to step into the D.A.'s office to investigate/improve
-- this is a wide scope without limitation to one type case or aspect to
the D.A.'s duties.

Stacy Head
Councilmember, District B

So, it appears the letter that was sent (still yet to be released as of my knowledge at the time of my writing) is significantly broader in scope from what Councilwoman Morrell described in the video this morning. This COULD (I stress, COULD) be an acceptable alternative to Ms. Midura's letter.

UPDATE 2- Check the poll at the top.

The United Blogger Front

If you haven't already listened to Garland yet, please do.

I'm PISSED!

I've got a proposal:

I propose a united blogger front. Regardless of our politics, conservative, liberal, moderate, Republican, Democrat, Independent, black, white, brown, etc. we pressure Nagin and the City Council to publicly call for Jordan's resignation. We especially focus on the City Council. They are still eligible for reelection.

I know Ash might not like getting behind Midura, but that's beside the point. We need to all, with one common voice, carpet bomb our local elected leaders until they take action on this one, very specific point.

As a united front, I propose every single one of us focus on this news story to ensure we DON'T calm down.

Also, I propose we make damned sure the city councilmen and councilwomen are reminded of their action during the next election... If they publicly call for Jordan's resignation, that we all point it out shortly before the election that, yes, they did call for his resignation. Even if we hate everything else they've done, we give them props for doing this one thing...

And if they don't...

BLOGGER SHOCK AND AWE!

We all commit to dig up every dirty little secret on every one of them. Fuck a hooker? Guess what, we'll be all over it and we'll spread it to news agencies all across the country. No matter what, you can't hide it from all of us. We squeal bloody murder at everyone of your missteps. I personally promise no only to vote against your opponent, but I will donate money to whoever runs against you and urge everyone I know to do the same.

We will ruin you, whatever it takes.

THIS IS TOO IMPORTANT TO "CALM DOWN" ABOUT! LIVES ARE AT STAKE!

This won't fix the city, but it's one small, achievable goal that will make this city noticeably better. Please, join in my call.


NOTE- Minor edits for clarity and punctuation.

UPDATE- Council Members weigh in. Well, at least Midura and Fielkow. Fielkow implied he would move to withhold funds...

UPDATE 2- Harry Connick Sr. Weighs In. He basically says Jordan set himself up for failure when he fired so many of his staffers at all levels. Remember, a jury found him liable for race and age based discrimination and he has a multi-million dollar verdict sitting against him he still hasn't paid.
One white man fired by Jordan testified that he was one of the few fingerprint and ballistics experts in the district attorney's office. The résumé of the man who replaced him showed he had little experience other than being a lifeguard and doing some office work at a law firm.

Eddie Jordan/Crime

The S has finally HTF for good ole Jordan. No amount of perfume can cover up this. I'm reminded of that quote from Jurassic Park: "Now that is one big pile of shit."

Lots of news over at NolaAgainstCrime. The one about the anti-gay beating was disturbing. The NOLA-wide boycott idea has merit.

NOPD Officer speaks out at Jordan's office (video). The DA's office pressured him to decline to press charges.

It seems that Maitri's campaign is finally starting to see results.

Midura has come out calling on Jordan's resignation. Hopefully, she's the first of a mass of calls for his resignation. If any local pol is reading this blog, I have this advice: you don't want to be Johnnie-Come-Lately on this one.

Nagin pokes his head out of his spider hole. Is Vitter in there with you?

Did anyone else listen to Garland Robinette today?!?!? That was the greatest show he's done since the "get off your ass" show! He kicked ass and took names. 'It's not about race anymore. It might have been in the past, but that's not the case right now. People are dying on the streets. Everyone is in fear of your lives. No more studies, no more promises, Jordan has got to go right now. Call up every politician in the city (and then he proceeds to give out names, numbers, and emails) and demand they publicly add their names to the call for his ouster. Nothing less than that is acceptable.' The mood was angry as hell and even if I didn't come close on that quote, I hope I conveyed the mood.

If you haven't already, please write your council member and ask them to add their voice to the calls for Jordan's resignation.

UPDATE- Here are recordings of the Garland Robinette Show today:

Hour1
Hour2
Hour3

Do yourself a favor and listen to them.

UPDATE 2-

PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, LISTEN TO THE GARLAND SHOW

UPDATE 3-

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! JORDAN MUST GO NOW! WE SHALL STORM THE BASTILLE IF NEED BE, BUT HE MUST GO NOW!

UPDATE 4-
Jordan's Response to Midura. Utter bullshit, as if I even need to say it.

UPDATE 5- Jordan, Pack Your Shit and Get the Hell Out of Here!

Jordan, Resign!

UPDATE 6- Big roundup on calls for his resignation at The Chicory. Thanks, Varg.

The Disaster that is the DA's Office

Oh, if I could only go on and on about Vitter... But, there are more serious problems to solve.

Maitri kicks Jordan in the balls.

Here's my letter to everyone on Maitri's list:
Dear ladies and gentlemen,

Things have descended into chaos in this city. Criminals suffer no repercussions for crimes they commit and citizens live in fear for their lives. Will I be next?

I have followed the City Council's efforts to fix the criminal justice system. Your efforts have been admirable. You haven't done a perfect job, but you've held inquiries that got close enough to the heart of the matter. You have tried to work with all parties involved. You have shown Mr. Jordan incredible patience. You have given him extra funding and time to accomplish his mission, and he still fails miserably.

Now is the time to cut Mr. Jordan off. I demand, as a voting citizen in Orleans Parish, you put maximum pressure for Jordan to quit so that a more effective DA can be put in his place as soon as possible. Cut him completely off from funding. Let Entergy disconnect the electricity to the building. Do whatever it takes to get him out and a more effective DA in.

I'm begging you to take action. Every day, another citizen loses his life on the streets of New Orleans. Failure to act or failure to act quickly enough will cost someone's life.

Every single murder victim is someone's son/daughter/mother/father/sister/brother. Don't wait a single minute.


Clay


PS- This won't solve the problem, but it will be a good first step. The next step, in case you are interested, will be correcting the plummeting morale amongst the NOPD rank and file.

Ed Renwick Poll

Great post about Ed Renwick's poll.

How are certain leaders doing?
Do you feel the following should get a POSITIVE rating?
Person/Group Tot. Jeff. NO Tam. White Black

Eddie Jordan 9 8 13 6 5 25

For the record, you could double Special Ed's approval rating and he'd still be more unpopular than Bush is nationally. Yeah, he's that bad.

Corps of Engineers

New Orleans Sues the Corps

This lawsuit is very interesting. I think there's a very low probability of money ever reaching the victims (Congress will never appropriate the money), but I don't think the lawsuit is a waste. Here's why: during the discovery phase, thousands of documents will be subpoenaed and the Corps will be forced to turn over incriminating documents. I'll bet Ivor is chomping at the bit. He's already probably parked on River Road with a U-Haul and a forklift just waiting to get inside.

Among the documents will be design memos, early revision drawings, soil samples (that's that I'm most interested in), and seals. Whenever a change is made on a project, a document with an official seal from the engineer taking responsibility for the change must be produced.

Sample Seal:


I think the documents will lay out a case for negligent homicide so clearly that even Easy Eddie can convict someone (and that's saying quite a lot). I think someone will finally be held accountable for their failures. More than just firing the most convenient scapegoat.

Eddie Jordan's Business Card

Hold Jordan's Feet to the Fire

This is the letter the City Council sent to Riley and Jordan. They want answers, especially about the infamous "701" releases.

The meeting is open to the public, so let's show up and give Jordan a piece of our minds.

I'm going to try to show up. I'm working up sign ideas, so if you have any, let me know.

Tell everyone you know. Let's have a strong showing.

Also, he might not show up. He did chicken out of showing up at the march, after all. If he doesn't show up, I will make a complaint with the Louisiana Bar Association. I think their office at 601 St. Charles Ave. would be an EXCELLENT location for a second march. It's right next to a park with plenty of lawyers within earshot to help put pressure on the bar association.

Meeting:
Monday, February 12, 2007
City Council Chamber
1300 Perdido Street
Time= ???

Profiles in Corruption: Eddie "The Hat" Jordan

Edward J. Jordan Junior

Known Aliases:
"Eddie Jordan"
"The Hat" (for his attire during the Edwards case)

* Practiced law with William J. "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. Upon Jefferson's rise to political power, Jordan became his heir-apparent. Jefferson wanted someone preselected to succeed him in case something happened (like jail time) before his daughters were old enough to replace him.

* Since Jefferson played a critical role in delivering Louisiana for President Clinton, the President repaid the favor by appointing Jordan a US Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Jefferson wanted Jordan in a position to squash any charges against himself or his cronies.

* First came to prominence for being part of the team that put former governor Edwards behind bars. The press were drawn to his mustache, derby hat, and sharp suits. What isn't widely know is he slept through most of the proceedings. Lenten did the heavy lifting for him.

* Retired from working for the feds to prepare for running for office. His opening came when Harry Connick Sr. decided to retire from his longtime tenure as Orleans Parish District Attorney.

* Jordan faced a crowded field in the general election and made it to the runoff against Dale Atkins (Connick's Clerk of Court). He won a very tight runoff because of endorsements by Jefferson and a surprise, but halfhearted endorsement from Nagin. His campaign platform was witness protection, victim protection, and the establishment of a "public integrity unit." He pledged to have his investigators visible at victims' funerals, etc.

* His tenure started off very poorly. He appointed an assistant who didn't meet the residency requirement. When confronted by the press, he claimed she was hired as an executive assistant, thus except from the residency rule. Another of his hires, Sal Palmisano, was notorious for getting upteen DUI's and was let go.

* Another investigator he hired, Richard Chambers, Jr. was a "deadbeat dad" who owed $11,000 in back payments. It's worth noting Chambers Sr. is the treasurer of Jefferson's political machine, the Progressive Democrats.

* Eddie Jordan was spotted dining at Ruth's Chris (among other restaurants) with a convicted felon still on probation.
Link
Link

* Jordan lined his pocket with internet advertising deals from local attorneys on a pseudo-official website.
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2004/02/internet-advertising-sponsorships/new-orleans-da-cashing-in-on-internet-advertising/


* Pissed off a bunch of rich white kids by using a crack house law to go after the promoters of raves. I remember Uptown being flooded with "Raving is not a crime" stickers.
Link

* Dwight Deal, Jordan's Chief Homicide Investigator was busted by the feds for blackmailing female witnesses for sex. That's right, he'd go up to female witnesses and basically say, 'sleep with me or I'll turn you in to the people you're scheduled to testify against.' My favorite part about the whole incident: Jordan's spokesperson Letrice Dupre said Deal was, "a model employee." Yes Ms. Dupre, Dwight Deal was a model employee at that office!
Link

* The same day Deal was put on leave, he lost a lawsuit by 40 former employees and was forced to pay $4 million. He more than 60 employees of the DA's office and replaced them all with black employees. The fired employees sued Jordan, alleging reverse discrimination and age discrimination. The kicker is, Jordan doesn't have to pay the fine. The Orleans Parish taxpayers have to. OUR MONEY has to pay for his racism/incompetance. My favorite instance of discrimination was Connick's primary fingerprint and ballistics expert replaced with an employee whose only previous experience was as "a lifeguard and some office work at a law firm." HA! He has yet to budget the money for the payment.
Link
Link
Link

* Walked out on an ABC interview. He was asked if the DA's office bears any blame for how broken the criminal justice system is in New Orleans. He got up and walked out saying, "They're stupid. They're not honest questions."
Link

* If you think that's bad, that's just the stuff I could PROVE. If I went into the the stuff people whisper about him, this post would be 30 times as long. If I were to sum up Jordan, I'd say he was a well-dressed emperor with no clothes. Given New Orleans' recent track record (Nagin and Jefferson) I think that might just guarantee him reelection.

Other Citations:
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
(Sorry on being sorta lazy about the hyperlinks. There are a lot of them.)

Eddie Jordan/Danzinger Bridge

CNN's Article from September 2005 about the Danziger Bridge Incident (scroll down)

7 NOPD Officers were indicted for murder yesterday.


Here's the story BEHIND the story:

Eddie Jordan is in trouble. The public sees him as a bungling idiot. He's the reason why murders walk in this city. His primary political patron (Dollar Bill) is probably heading to jail. Even if Jefferson stays out of jail, he's going to be tied up with his own problems to help out Jordan. He's up for reelection in about 9 months. He needs to rile up his base and convince people to vote for him. How can he do that? Take every resource he can muster and throw it at a hot button issue (The Danziger Bridge Incident).

Anyone notice how the front page of the Times-Pic showed 3 white officers and no others? I'm reliably informed that of the remaining 4 officers, 2 are black and 1 is Vietnamese. Don't know about the last one. Hmmm, might someone be trying to sensationalize the incident to rescue flagging paper sales.

I'm making a prediction: this will end poorly for the city. There is a high probability of this sparking a race riot.

It gets worse. Relations between NOPD and the DA's office were strained as it was. Neither side got along with the other. The NOPD blamed the DA's office for being incapable of putting criminals behind bars. The DA's office blamed NOPD for giving them enough evidence to get convictions. Like I said, the two organizations were exactly on great terms to begin with.

To make matters worse, Jordan started running his mouth.

"We cannot allow our police officers to shoot and kill our citizens without justification like rabid dogs," District Attorney Eddie Jordan said.

Warren Riley, who was initially beloved by street cops when he took over from Compass, but now is now mostly dismissed as a political hack, responded:

Police Superintendent Warren Riley called Jordan's comment was "highly prejudicial and highly undignified."

While this whole mess is going on, there's a massive crime wave taking over the city. NOTHING is going to get done while the DA's office and the cops are at each other's throats. The real losers in this mess are the residents of Orleans Parish. We've got to dodge bullets while this soap opera goes on. I'M FAR LESS CONCERNED ABOUT BULLETS THAT WERE FIRED 16 MONTHS AGO THAN I AM ABOUT THE ONES FLYING OVER MY HEAD THIS INSTANT. Remember, there is no statute of limitations on murder. It's a cold case, so they'll have as much evidence a year from now as they do this year. There are rumors they don't have any evidence as it is, but that's another issue I'll side-step.

I'm hoping that this trial will expose what a bungling idiot Jordan is and lead to his demise as Orleans Parish DA. Unfortunately, here's what I think is far more likely: the merits of the case won't really factor into the decision to acquit the officers. Eddie Jordan will horribly botch the case. Also, he's never convicted anyone who's had decent defense attorneys. I know the reputation of one of the defense lawyers and he won't cede Jordan 1 inch of ground. The officers will walk. The city, which has been on edge ever since Nagin's Chocolate City speech will explode and everything that wasn't flooded will get burnt to the ground.

I want to be clear that I don't have a clue what happened on that bridge. I'm not saying the cops are guilty or innocent. I just think they'll be cleared because of other issues.

I'll tell you what, I don't want to stick around for when the verdict is announced. I'll be on vacation outside Louisiana. Fortunately, that's months from now.