| New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan has been feeling the heat and a lot of pressure as the chief law enforcement officer for the city, from the backlog of cases being prosecuted to the number of people who have been held without trial since Katrina ravaged New Orleans over a year ago. Some New Orleanians have said woe is the person who was picked up for disorderly conduct on Bourbon Street the Saturday before the storm. They may still be in jail. Jordan is responsible for enforcing the laws of Louisiana. For the New Orleans press and some in the national media -- Jordan walked out of an interview on ABC's "Nightline" because, in Jordan's words, "They came down to New Orleans to do a hatchet job." -- the buck stops at his door for the shambles that the criminal justice system is in. Yet, it almost depends upon what month it is to determine which door opens to the district attorney's office. Currently, the DA's office resides on the seventh floor of an office building on Poydras Street, almost in the shadows of the Superdome and blocks away from the courthouse where the DA prosecutes cases. After initially setting up shop in Baton Rouge immediately after Katrina, the DA's office has been as transient as New Orleans' people. "We've been in 5-6 locations since the storm including a night club, a hotel lobby, a train station, and now, an office building," Jordan said during an interview with The Capital City Hues. "It's been very difficult on the staff. We're happy to have an office space, we really are." It will still be months before the DA's office can move back to its regular offices adjacent to the courthouse. Jordan is fortunate to have a staff. After the city shut down, the funding stopped flowing to the DA's office. Jordan was forced to lay off 85 percent of his non-attorney support staff. "We also had a significant number of prosecutors who did not return after the storm," Jordan said. "We continue to suffer from a high turnover rate as a result of the conditions that exist here in the city, as well as the very low pay that prosecutors receive in my office." The obstacles that Jordan and his staff face are formidable in kick-starting the criminal justice system again. It's been a "Herculean effort," in Jordan's words. The first floor of the DA's office was completely wiped out by Katrina. It wasn't the only thing under water. "There are many cases where we have not yet had an opportunity to see the evidence and review it to determine whether it still exists," Jordan confided. "It's generally located either in the clerk's office in the criminal district court building or in the police department. Storm water basically engulfed the evidence in both of those locations. But the good news is that all of the evidence the clerk had custody of has been remediated." The principal witnesses in the pre-Katrina cases that Jordan's office needs to prosecute are New Orleans residents. And just as the residents of New Orleans were dispersed throughout the south and the U.S., some never to return, so too have Jordan's witnesses been dispersed. "Many of them had personal circumstances that made it impossible for them to return," Jordan said. "And they have not returned to this day. We continue to have major challenges in getting witnesses back to New Orleans." In some cases, witnesses have had to be flown in to New Orleans, putting pressure on an already lean budget. They've also had difficulty getting enough New Orleans citizens to empanel juries. The witnesses aren't the only ones who have been dispersed and unaccounted for. In many instances, individuals caught up in the criminal justice system have been in the same boat. "Not every person in jail has been able to have his day in court," Jordan confided. "We track all defendants who are in the state system, the state criminal district court. One of the difficulties that we encountered after the storm is that we were no longer able to track some of the defendants. So there have been defendants who were not accounted for in the system. Apparently, none of the other components of the system had information or records on these individuals who were arrested, but never officially charged by our office." People who had been arrested were transferred to other detention facilities throughout Louisiana. And even if the defendants have been located, their cases may still be delayed because they must have legal representation, representation that isn't always available. "Not every individual has an active working attorney," Jordan said. "Court dates have to be set and we have to have the opportunity to present that evidence in court. With the addition of the private attorneys who are volunteering to help the public defenders office, there will be enough to represent the defendants." While much publicity was given to the looting and shootings that occurred in the wake of Katrina, most of the cases Jordan's office is currently prosecuting are pre-Katrina cases. "There was very little law enforcement activity in the nature of arrests for state violations following the storm for several months," Jordan said. "First of all, you didn't have a lot of people here during the first few months after the storm. And in the days immediately after the storm, the police department really wasn't in the position to arrest many individuals because of the unavailability of a jailhouse." In spite of the conditions and obstacles -- and criticism -- Jordan's office has faced, he is proud of what his office has accomplished since the office began to function once again. "I just think the young people working in my office, for the most part young, relatively inexperienced prosecutors, have really been working since September," Jordan said. "Some of them lost everything and they've still been able to function and really serve the community. I'm really proud of that, we're making progress, but we want to make a lot more. We know we're far from perfect, but we really have some good results to show for the time we've been able to prosecute cases in court." According to Jordan, his office has over 300 convictions since Katrina and has tried 30 cases, in which they have a 70 percent conviction rate. "In many instances, those are people who will not be on the street ever again," Jordan emphasized. There have been several other factors that have stymied Jordan's efforts. The New Orleans Police Department lost many officers -- individuals who are key witnesses in some cases -- because they left New Orleans after the storm or were fired because they left their post during the storm, and, in some instances, were accused of participating in the looting right after Katrina hit. "There was an inquiry involving certain police officers who were allegedly involved in looting," Jordan said. "I think that report was brought to our office. But we also have some shooting incidents that occurred where at least one private citizen was killed by the police. That matter is currently under investigation before the grand jury." Jordan's office is also responsible for investigating the Memorial Hospital case where some hospital personnel are accused of killing some patients as the floodwaters filled the hospital. Another factor is that Jordan's office doesn't control the flow of prosecutions. "In Orleans Parish, the judges decide which cases are brought to trial, not the district attorney," Jordan emphasized. "We feel that is a violation of the law, but that is the way it is done here in Orleans Parish. That's not the way it is dome anywhere else in America. Some of the judges have a unique interpretation of the law and they believe they may receive input from prosecutors, but they have the final say about which cases are to be prosecuted." In many ways, the New Orleans District Attorney's office reflects the state of New Orleans and its residents. It was displaced by Katrina and it will be many months before the criminal justice system is operating smoothly again. The physical infrastructure isn't the only thing that needs to be redeveloped in New Orleans. Government systems need a lot of renovation as well. In the meantime, Jordan's office will continue to cope with the task hand that it has been dealt. |
| Embattled New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan Rebuilding the system By Jonathan Gramling |
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