Why can't something be done about this District Attorney?

[Azeater]

From WWL


4 Investigates: Man arrested 24 times; D.A.'s office never accepted a case against him

10:50 PM CST on Thursday, February 15, 2007
Ben Lemoine / Eyewitness News Reporter

He has been arrested 24 times in the past two years for violent crimes and most recently for murder, but the Orleans District Attorney’s Office has never accepted a case against 21-year-old Eugene Treg, and he could soon be a free man.

21-year-old Eugene Treg

It was May of last year when police said two men crept up to a car on Monticello Street to gun down and rob another man of his $30,000 in jewelry. Investigators said Treg and 21-year-old Darrell Davis opened fire on Alton Patterson, but in the hail of bullets, police think Treg accidentally shot his cohort, Davis, killing him.

Leaving Patterson with two gunshot wounds, Treg allegedly brought Davis to Ochsner Hospital to unload his body.

But the drop-off did not go without notice. A doctor and nurse at Ochsner said they saw two men pull up and dump Darrell Davis' body in the parking lot and then drive off, but not before the doctor got the license plate number.
Investigators said the car belonged to a friend of Treg and Davis who said the two borrowed it from her a few days before. That is what led police to Eugene Treg. In his possession they said they found a nine milometer pistol and ballistics testing on bullets taken from the victims and casings on the scene matched his gun.

A report confirmed it “was the weapon used” in the shooting on Monticello Street.

According to the Department of Corrections, December 12, 2006 would be the 24th time Eugene Treg was arrested in Orleans Parish.

His apparent criminal career is checkered with charges of possessing illegal weapons, concealed weapons, a stolen car, being a felon with a firearm, and rape and kidnapping. None of those cases were prosecuted by the D.A.’s office.

Wednesday, District Attorney Eddie Jordan’s office refused the murder and attempted murder case against Treg.

Jordan’s office turned down a request by Eyewitness News for an on-camera interview, but D.A. spokesperson Dalton Savoir said the case was dropped due to “circumstantial evidence” and said prosecutors “couldn’t meet their burden of proof.” He also called the case a “waste of our time” and said “we have no case.”

Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino said police only need probable cause to make an arrest and said the D.A. has a much greater burden of proof when it comes to prosecuting, and depending on how burdensome, that can lead to letting suspects go.

“In Louisiana, the D.A. has virtually unbridled discretion to decide which cases he will accept and which cases he will refuse. And there's no review from his exercise of that discretion.”

Treg was still in Orleans Parish prison Thursday night, but only on what is referred to as a “municipal attachment.” Prison officials said it was likely because he missed a court appearance, but if Treg posts a $2,500 bond, he would be a free man.

[Rossvegas]

That's just outrageous...and sickening.

[Corona]

sounds like this dude is connected somehow.....makes no sense....other than "a favor for someone". I can't accept that the D.A. is that much of a moron to keep letting this dude slide....BTW, who found this info? The new investigative/audit program they started or are starting?

[mightyradgumbo]

Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino said police only need probable cause to make an arrest and said the D.A. has a much greater burden of proof when it comes to prosecuting, and depending on how burdensome, that can lead to letting suspects go.



yeah he is right, BUT 24 TIMES???????????

[mangoon]

This isn't the first time I have seen Eddie Jordans name mentioned on the bored. Would it be safe to assume that this guy has a history of making questionable decisions in this area? If so, It makes you wonder how serious the powers that be in N.O (as lame as they may be), are taking the crime issue. I could be wrong,maybe someone else knows more about Jordans history.

[Frosty]

They dropped charges because the victim refused to testify. These people are required by law to be let go if charges are not filed withiun 60 days. With witnesses and victims refusing to testify, and crime evidence backed up in labs due to Katrina, they are forced to let people go. Changing the DA won't make a difference, changing the law will.

[Amyloves...]

I gotta disagree frosty. Maybe changing the D.A. would give witnesses some confidence in our justice system so that they wouldn't be afraid to testify to begin with. If there's no faith that the bad guy will get locked up, why would they want to risk it? And if there's no faith that the bad guy will even be prosecuted, why would police want to risk their own lives making arrest after arrest for nothing?

[ibjamn]

Eddie Jordan's first act as DA:

On March 30, 2005, Jordan was found liable for racial discrimination by a federal jury for the mass firing of forty-three white employees immediately after he took office. These employees were replaced almost entirely by African Americans. As a result of Jordan being found liable but acting in his "capacity as a public official", the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office was required to pay $2.4 million to the plaintiffs. The case is under appeal.

[Azeater]

They dropped charges because the victim refused to testify.


The victum was dead. The hospital staff saw the plate. The owner said who was using the car. The police found the gun. The ballistics confirmed the weapon as the gun used. The DA ia an incompetant jerk. 24 arrests. Do police officers not qualify as wittnesses?

This system is so broken it is a joke. The meeting between Jordan, Riley and the council was nothing but a tug-of-war between two incompetants seeing who could face down the other and make them the scapegoat. New Orleans continues to suffer due to this type of mindset. What a shame. If anyone had any faith whatsoever in the DA's office testimony would not be nearly so difficult to obtain. There is no faith in the system whatsoever to remove the guilty from the streets and it just continues to self-perpetuate.

[Frosty]

OK, my point is the 60 day law which has been allowing so many to go free. That law combined with the inability of the labs to keep up, the lack of cooperation of witnesses, and the shortage of officers is making it inpossible to charge people. There was an article on it just two days ago.

I can't speak to his firing people or whatnot.

Also, the victim is not dead, the defendents partner is. The guy they were perpetrating the crime against refused to testify. The guy who was commiting the crime with him was the one killed. The possible murder charge was to come from the fact somebody was killed during the commission of a felony but without the victims testimony, they can't prove the commission of the felony part which leads you to an accidental shooting. Go forward all you want but this case would not hold water in court.

The real problem here is so many of these crimes are criminal on criminal so witnesses and victims hush up and nothing can be done. This problem is not unique to New Orleans, nor is it a recent problem (see Al Capone).

[Frosty]

All I'm saying is good DA or bad DA, there needs to be legislative relief for this law until NO's criminal justice system is fully functional again.

From the TP:

Crime thrives under 60-day rule
Blown deadline frees hundreds of suspects
Monday, February 12, 2007
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
On recent FBI wiretaps, agents can hear criminal suspects muttering about "misdemeanor murders," code for doing hardly any time at all for the worst crime on the books.

On street corners and in the grungy holding tanks at parish prison, they have another name for it: "701," shorthand for Article 701 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure. It states that no one can be held longer than 60 days on a felony arrest without an indictment.

Sometimes a 701 release merely eliminates a bond posted by a suspect in order to remain at liberty pending a trial. But in other cases, the 701 springs a murder suspect from jail because prosecutors have failed to meet the 60-day deadline, and that's been happening with astonishing frequency -- a tenfold increase -- in the widely criticized New Orleans criminal justice system since Hurricane Katrina.

The 701 list for 2005 includes Dquane Morgan, 20, booked with the second-degree murder of Ryan Crooks, 17, shot down in a hallway at the St. Bernard public housing complex June 2, 2005.

Three days later, Morgan was arrested. Sixty days after that, he walked free on a 701 release, leaving the case cold and now closed. The reason, prosecutors noted for the record, was that they never received a police report within the 60-day period. That's the same reason the other seven murder cases from the same seven-month stretch in 2005 tanked.

Jump to July 2006. The two men accused of trying to kill police officer Kevin Thomas in Algiers during a post-Katrina looting spree were released from jail after almost 10 months in jail. Prosecutors say they knew about the case all along but couldn't make a case given the deficiencies of the post-Katrina era.

But by the time District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office finally charged Vincent Walker, 44, and Jimil Joyner, 24, with attempted first-degree murder -- a week ago -- both suspects were on the loose.


Get-out-of-jail-free card


Prosecutors may refile charges against 701'd suspects if they get complete police reports, but often a 701 amounts to the writing on the wall, and cases fall by the wayside.

Conceived as insurance against lethargic prosecutors and detention without due process, a 701 can also be a get-out-of-jail-free card for criminals -- murderers included. And never has the city seen so many of them as in the post-Katrina era.

In the eight months before the hurricane, the city released 187 people on a 701, including eight murder suspects, prosecutors' records show. In 2006, the number of releases soared to about 3,000. And last month alone, 580 people escaped legal custody of either jail or a bond obligation only because prosecutors couldn't pull together a case ahead of the deadline imposed by law.

"That's 580 people," said Dalton Savwoir, spokesman for Jordan's office, when asked to repeat the figure for clarity.

Charges against the 580 included 457 felony charges. Of the felony lot, 220 people physically walked out of jail, while the rest were out on bond. Savwoir estimated that "90 percent" of the 701 releases are related to narcotics, but he said he didn't have a list of names of the defendants.


Cops, DA trade blame


Most 701 releases happen for one of two reasons: A police report hasn't been turned in to the district attorney's office, or the district attorney's office hasn't reviewed it in time.

Once the high-profile cases are revealed, prosecutors blame police for not turning in a report while police seethe over taking the hit for working the deadly streets of New Orleans. Probable cause is enough for an arrest, but not even close to the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard prosecutors must rise to in court to win a conviction.

The escalation of 701 releases is symptomatic of a criminal justice system that has teetered on the verge of collapse since Katrina. As big as any problem is the lack of a crime lab -- 17 months after the rickety, antiquated lab on Tulane Avenue was inundated.

Instead of having its own home base to test narcotics and bag evidence, New Orleans police borrow time at neighboring parish crime labs. The result is a staggering backlog of arrests that never evolve into court cases.

For weeks, the New Orleans Police Department has appeared poised to strike a deal to open a new 10,000-square-foot crime lab on the lakefront campus of the University of New Orleans. NOPD has received $5 million in federal money to replace its flooded-out lab.

But as of late Friday, the lab is still an unsigned promise.

"We're still working out the details," said Sgt. Joe Narcisse, spokesman for NOPD. "Nothing is finalized."


'The old-fashioned way'


In the meantime, three police districts still work out of trailers. And the criminal justice system's lack of technology in record-keeping and case-tracking is only further stymied by the storm's lingering damage.

"What we're up against in the post-Katrina world is we're doing things the old-fashioned way," said attorney Henri Wolbrette of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, a nonprofit working to get the crime lab up and running. "We're dealing with huge volumes of paper. The DA's computer system is down, they have to do everything manually. The foundation is working with them to get it back online. On the other side, the lack of a crime lab has created an enormous problem. The DA can't review something that's not there."

The foundation is also trying to secure federal money to install a universal computer system for the six elements of the local law enforcement: prosecutors, cops, the sheriff, the public defenders, the clerk's office and the courthouse. At present, the six entities don't always have the same information in the same databases, making well-coordinated prosecution nearly impossible.

Today, both Jordan and Police Superintendent Warren Riley are due to appear before the City Council to address issues surrounding the city's alarming crime rate. The questions include what can be done to avoid 701 releases.

About 60 percent of all arrests in New Orleans are tied to the drug trade, said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group. Two-thirds of those arrests are for simple possession.

The lack of a local crime lab is taking a toll on the system and the crime rate, he said.

"If you don't have lab analysis proving that it's drugs, you might be able to charge but you can't begin to convict anyone," Goyeneche said. "No defense attorney in his right mind is going to let a client plead guilty before they see that lab report. The system gets bottlenecked up."


Witness woes


A missed legal deadline isn't the only problem plaguing Orleans Parish's criminal justice system.

Prosecutors and police blame a lack of witness cooperation for derailed murder cases, and Criminal District Court is littered with files that are dead on arrival when a witness backs out or disappears.

That's why perennial murder suspect Garelle Smith was out on the streets of New Orleans in December, said Craig Famularo, the district attorney's chief of homicide division. Smith, 25, was arrested on suspicion of gunning down rapper Soulja Slim, aka James Tapp, in 2003, but was sprung on a 701 release when no charges had been brought within 60 days.

Both of Smith's prior murder raps disintegrated because witnesses wouldn't come forward, said Famularo, a former officer and longtime prosecutor. "These were not cases of a lack of cooperation between police and prosecutors," he said.

Smith, who escaped another murder case in 2004, was arrested last month in the murder of 24-year-old Mandell Duplessis, gunned down Aug. 4 outside a FEMA trailer.

. . . . . . .

Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3304.

[Azeater]

I misspoke regarding the victim yet the dead person is definitely a victim.

You are correct that this is not a new problem but to think Jordan’s office and it’s less than good working relationship with the police department does not contribute a great deal to the issue is, I believe, not correct.

In 2003 and 2004, the conviction rate for murder and attempted murder was at best 12 percent, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission. By comparison, the national conviction rate for murder and attempted murder is 80 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

"People who are most affected by the crime have no confidence in the system," says Dee Harper, a criminologist at Loyola University here. "People don't come forward. We can't impanel juries that will convict anybody, especially if the only witness is a police officer. The system is really, really, seriously broken."

A new direction must be found.

[Frosty]

You're right. I can't specifically speak to the DA. I'm just speaking to legislation that is not realistic post 8/29. Something needs to be done on several fronts.

[festivalgirl]

Can we make a Citizen's Arrest on the whole city "government"? It's time to storm the gates.........................................

[Azeater]

But if they arrest them Eddie will just let them go. ;>)

[grisgris]

The only person Eddie Jordan ever got a judgement against was Uncle Eddie (Edwin Edwards).

[Beezle Bob]

He's now out on the street. Happy Mardi Gras.

[steffie]

Can we make a Citizen's Arrest on the whole city "government"? It's time to storm the gates.........................................

Festivalgirl - I love the way you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

[mightyradgumbo]

OK, my point is the 60 day law which has been allowing so many to go free. That law combined with the inability of the labs to keep up, the lack of cooperation of witnesses, and the shortage of officers is making it inpossible to charge people. There was an article on it just two days ago.



You can fight firepower with alternative firepower. Consider it thinking outside the box. In Boston, a few years back, we had an epediemic of the same thing-too much crime, too little management of it. You just need a basic filing to keep the clock running on any particular issue for the most part.

The DA dedicates one staff member to filings and managing timelines, We in Boston saw one of our first dramatic decreases in Crime because we fought the minutia that usually kicks DAs in the crotch. If you keep the deadline extended until you can play with that case, you have an equitable chance of seeing it to trial. You also keep the person commiting these issues in jail.

[Azeater]

Can indict seven police officers who didn't flee from Katrina and were trying to stay behind in the chaos and do their job rather than heading off to Houston in a stolen Cadillac but can't indict a murdering SOB who has 24 arrests on his record.

An internal probe of the Danziger Bridge incident, in which seven police officers fired on civilians, killing two, in post-Katrina chaos, relied almost solely on accounts by the officers themselves, with scant backing from physical evidence or statements from bystanders.

Attorneys for the officers have cited the 53-page investigative report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times-Picayune, in arguing that they are innocent, but the officers were indicted on charges of murder and attempted murder by a state grand jury hearing evidence presented by District Attorney Eddie Jordan.


http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index2.ssf?/base/news-7/11717835705520.xml&coll=1

[mluke66]

Whoa Whoa, Azeater.

As much I don't like Eddie Jordan, wasn't a mentally retarded man killed by the NOPD on that bridge and his brother held unjustly?

[Azeater]

The point is that clearly individuals can be indicted when the DA is so inclined, whether there is a sufficient case with which to indict or not.

We now have Eugene Treg back on the street, further emboldened by his perception that he is invulnerable to the law, and clearly not the least bit constrained in his actions by what just happened to him with regard to his most current run in with the justice system in NO.

Whether the police officers are guilty or not, they will most likely be under the microscope and if they are brought to trial they will either be convicted or exonerated by a jury of their peers. Eugene Treg will continue with his lawless ways and ruin the lives of no telling how many more individuals until such time as he is finally incarcerated for one of his many crimes. So far it appears he is 24-0 with regard to breaking the law and in reality the 24 arrests probably account for only a small fraction of his misdeeds.

[ScoopJohnD]

Az makes a good point. Jordan often cites faulty police reports as the reason he can't make indictments yet the one concerning these officers has more holes than a slice of Finlandia. That's not to say these officers do not deserve to be indicted but it's clear that Jordan has agenda and he'll advance it at whatever cost.

But both Jordan and the police superintendant are not autonomous authorities. They both must have to answer to someone, and the question is why is the dismal performance of both of them accepted?