By Mike Perlstein | WWL | April 16, 2021 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS — “Blindsided. Hit hard. Shocked.” That was how Dorothy Tardy described her reaction after getting a call from Angola State Penitentiary that inmate Michael Davis was being released nearly 19 years after he was convicted in the barroom robbery that led…
By Nicholas Chrastil | The Lens | April 15, 2021 For nearly two decades, when former judge Calvin Johnson presided in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, he handed down prison sentences to defendants that he himself felt were too harsh. “That happened all the time,” Johnson said. “So many of them were around, of course,…
By LBJ | WGNO | April 12, 2021 New bill from NOLA lawmaker aims to address violent crime NEW ORLEANS— Crime in New Orleans and other metropolitan communities is not new. What is new is the spike of a dangerous variety of crime that has many citizens shaken. Rafael Goyeneche of The Metropolitan Crime Commission(MCC) says, “Violence…we…
By Danae Columbus | Uptown Messenger | April 8, 2021 It probably was a case of mistaken identity that could have turned deadly for Jhamal Shelby Jr., a soft-spoken St. Augustine High School star athlete and honor student. One recent afternoon after practice, Shelby drove to his father’s home in New Orleans East. Before he…
By Natasha Robin | WVUE | April 5, 2021 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The family of slain NOPD Officer Christopher Russell is very upset. The victim’s mother told FOX 8, she received a call from Angola, not the DA’s office to notify her that a man previously convicted of an armed robbery…
By Bill Quigley | Common Dreams | March 30, 2021 On December 5, 2020, New Orleans elected its first ever progressive District Attorney, who was a criminal defense lawyer for over 20 years before being elected, replaced former DA Leon Cannizzaro, described by New Orleans papers as a traditional tough on crime prosecutor. An unprecedented coalition…
By Nicholas Chrastil | The Lens | March 29, 2021 The state of Louisiana has set arrest “targets” for the New Orleans Police Department as part of a federally funded grant program meant to boost traffic enforcement — possibly violating laws against quotas, according to lawyers who spoke to The Lens. Similar grants have gone…
By Matt Sledge | NOLA.com | March 28, 2021 Courts in New Orleans built up a huge case backlog during the coronavirus pandemic — and Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams started slashing it during his first month in office, according to recently-released statistics. Williams dismissed 415 old cases and accepted roughly 227 new ones…
By Natasha Robin | WVUE | March 26, 2021 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -A rat is trapped in a cage, doused with lighter fluid, and set on fire. While experts say the act is disturbing enough, they say what’s being said in the background on the social media post raises the level of…
By Natasha Robin | WVUE | March 24, 2021 NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – In his first month in office, Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams dismissed 415 criminal cases. Of those cases, more than 800 charges were dismissed. “It’s alarming. I haven’t seen numbers like this even after Katrina,” says Rafael Goyeneche. Rafael Goyeneche of the…