The movement to discredit Warren Riley continues.

Wednesday, on just the 13th day of 2010, New Orleans recorded its 10th homicide.

On Thursday, two New Orleans police officers were booked as the result of two separate criminal investigations. One officer is charged with abducting a woman who authorities say was later raped by his partner. The other was arrested for repeatedly discharging his weapon into his personal vehicle.

Wonder how much they got paid to make the superintendent of the Police Department look bad? As for this year’s murderers, wonder who rounded them up and advised that by shooting and killing other people, they could accomplish still greater destruction by shooting holes in the police chief’s reputation?

warrenriley112809.jpgJohn McCusker / The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Police Superintendent Warren RileyWe are compelled to ask these questions because during a recent radio interview Superintendent Riley brought attention to the “shadow government” that he says is working hard to make both him and Mayor Ray Nagin look bad. Despite appearances to the contrary, Riley suggests, the New Orleans Police Department is quite the accomplished and well-managed crime-fighting organization. It’s just that damned shadow government that’s brainwashing the public and providing for them a distorted view of the city’s leadership.

People who believe that the Police Department can’t catch criminals on the street or keep them off the force — have merely fallen for the okie doke. When what they ought to be doing is listening to Riley explain the existence of sinister forces.

“There are certainly people in city government and leadership positions who are incompetent, who are blatantly racists, who have done everything they could to make this administration fail,” he said.

Last month the New Orleans Crime Coalition released a poll revealing that only 33 percent of people in New Orleans say they are satisfied with the performance of the Police Department. When the poll was released, Riley said his department had been making improvements over the previous year, but conceded that the satisfaction rates were “far too low, certainly not acceptable.”

“We still have major challenges,” he said, “and we still have a long way to go.”

But in the radio interview Jan. 6 he said that the poll was part of the elaborate plot against him. The New Orleans Crime Coalition announced the poll’s findings Monday, Dec. 7. Candidates for the Feb. 6 municipal election began qualifying that Wednesday. Get it? The aim was to throw cold water on any idea Riley may have had of running for political office. It was for that same reason that this newspaper published negative stories about him and his department.

Riley had already made it clear in August that he wasn’t running for mayor. So it’s unclear exactly why he thinks his enemies would have busied themselves with such a plot.

But that question isn’t as important as why the police superintendent thinks the general public can’t be trusted to know how it feels about the Police Department and the prevalence of crime. Sometimes things are just as they appear to be. Sometimes the public says it’s dissatisfied with the Police Department because murders happen on an almost daily basis. Sometimes the public says it’s dissatisfied because officers on the force are being accused of committing crimes that include preying on the public.

Officer Thomas Clark was indicted Thursday on a count of second-degree kidnapping. His partner Henry L. Hollins was indicted in November after a grand jury determined that Hollins handcuffed a woman at gunpoint and later raped her as she remained shackled. Problem officers are often turned over to prosecutors by the Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau. But not this time. Clark was indicted after the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office conducted its own investigation. It’s fair to ask why the Police Department itself hadn’t determined that he was a problem.

Officer Patrick O’Hern was also arrested Thursday after he allegedly fired a weapon multiple times into his personal vehicle. Who knows why he did it. But it’s unlikely anybody’s going to believe that he did it in a plot to make Riley look bad.

There doesn’t need to be a plot. Riley looks bad simply because his department does.

Jarvis DeBerry can be reached at jdeberry@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3355. Follow him at http://connect.nola.com/user/jdeberry/index.html and at twitter.com/jarvisdeberrytp.

11wbshepherd4Susan Poag / The Times-PicayuneAs his attorney John Reed, his mother Margie H. Richardson and father Eddie Shepherd stand by his side,State Sen. Derrick Shepherd,second from right, apologizes to his family and constituents after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering at the federal courthouse on October 10, 2008. His bond was revoked Friday and he was jailed after being arrested on outstanding warrants. A federal judge ordered former state Sen. Derrick Shepherd to jail on Friday, where he will remain until his February sentencing on corruption charges.

The decision by U.S. Judge Carl Barbier included revoking Shepherd’s bond, which had allowed him to remain free on bond after he pleaded guilty in a federal money laundering conspiracy.

Jim Letten.JPGThe Times-PicayuneJim Letten

The judge’s actions come on the heels of Shepherd’s arrest earlier this week on outstanding warrants, including one in New Orleans for domestic violence. According to New Orleans Municipal Court documents, Shepherd last February hit a woman and bit her. He is scheduled to stand trial in that case next week.

“One of the warrants is from last February and arose from a disagreement with a woman friend, ” Shepherd’s lawyer, John Reed, is reported as telling the Associated Press earlier this week.

Shepherd was arrested in Jefferson Parish in 2008 after he broke into his ex-girlfriend Thaise Ashford’s home, punched her in the stomach and took her cell phone and $100.

Those are seperate charges and are pending, according to court records.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said that until Shepherd’s arrest, federal prosecutors did not know he had any outstanding warrants.

“When we found this out, we brought this to the attention of the court,” Letten said.

A minute entry filed in the federal court record shows that a federal prosecutor filed two documents under seal before the judge ordered Shepherd to be remanded into custody.

Without offering evidence, Riley alleged Wednesday on an interview on WBOK-AM that the message from Head referred to him as a “n—–.” The allegations are the latest in a long-simmering feud between the police chief and the councilwoman.

Head called Riley’s assertion, for which he has yet to offer any proof, “absolutely, wholeheartedly, unequivocally not true. It’s against my grain; it’s against my core.”

“I don’t know the genesis of this, but it’s a shame he has stooped to that level,” said Head, who is running for re-election to her District B seat. “It’s below the belt and personal. But I don’t see any need to try and disprove an untruth. I don’t see at this point any need to engage, since our professional relationship is shortly coming to an end.”

Riley’s office did not respond to e-mail messages and telephone requests for comment Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, police spokesman Bob Young said Riley suggested that reporters look through Head’s e-mail messages themselves. Young would not confirm whether Riley actually saw the alleged message or when it was sent. Young declined further comment.

With a closely contested mayoral primary on tap Feb. 6, race - always a hot-button issue in New Orleans politics - has become a dominant theme on the airwaves and on the campaign trail. One mayoral candidate cited it as a reason for dropping out, while another held a news conference to blast the media for focusing on race. Just months ago, recently departed recovery czar Ed Blakely declared that “everyone’s a racist” in New Orleans.

stacy_head.JPGChris Granger/The Times-Picayune archive’It’s below the belt and personal,’ City Councilwoman Stacy Head said.

Riley’s recent comments came in a wide-ranging interview in which the chief, who has said he will leave office in May when Mayor Ray Nagin’s term ends, blasted his critics. He decried the local media, some politicians, business leaders and a “shadow government” — all of whom, he said, have joined forces to make him and Nagin appear incompetent.

“There are certainly people in city government and leadership positions who are incompetent, who are blatantly racists, who have done everything they could to make this administration fail,” Riley said.

Riley said that unnamed “powerful” people have launched a campaign to downplay his and Nagin’s successes as city leaders.

The allegations about Head’s e-mail came up when a radio station caller, who went by the name Malcolm, mentioned the alleged message.

The caller said: “I hear some of our council members are sending e-mails out — one in particular, Ms. Head, sent an e-mail saying she hopes you fail and let’s not approve your budget. But anyway, she’s the failure in all of this anyway.

Riley responded: “You forgot the N-word that was in that e-mail, from what I understand.”

“Well, yeah, you heard about it,” the caller responded. “She said ‘Let’s make this Negro, not Negro, but she used that other one.”

The caller then lambasted the media for ignoring the message. “The news (media) did not, nobody else put that out, nobody else interviewed, nobody made a big story about that. And if it was somebody of color that sat on the City Council who had that kind of behavior, would have been asked to step down.”

Head’s e-mail messages, including some about Riley, have come under intense public scrutiny since a trove of her city electronic messages were released last year. While many were intemperate or embarrassing, none used racial slurs.

In one message, Head wrote of Riley that she was “twisting his balls.”

In others, she called colleague Jackie Clarkson “an ASSS” and “a disaster” and ridiculed the purchases of a woman using food stamps in line ahead of her.

Head responded by saying the messages were released by critics using “tired, old political antics” to gain power.

In the radio interview Wednesday, Riley said there is a “takeover” in the city.

“We have talked about a shadow government. You can decide in your own mind who the shadow government is, and so can your listeners. Has there been an organized effort to make certain leaders in this city look incompetent? Absolutely. With an attempt to ensure that even African-Americans were fed up with African-American leadership,” he said.

Riley said the recent release of a poll - showing that only 33 percent of citizens are satisfied with the NOPD - was timed to dissuade him from entering politics. The poll was unveiled by business leaders shortly before the political qualifying period. Riley also alleged The Times-Picayune chose that week to release several negative stories about him.

“There’s a revolution going on, and we are missing it,” he said.

Riley also criticized the slate of mayoral candidates and promoted his tenure as police chief.

“You know, I listen to the mayoral candidates,” he said. “I run a bigger organization, and have had bigger budgets than any of these individuals. And I’m not knocking any of them. I’m just saying, I have had the ultimate challenge. The only person … there are two people who have bigger challenges than I. And that’s Mayor Nagin and President Obama.”

Riley added that, although several agencies have expressed interest hiring him, he is not going to be a police chief elsewhere.

“I’m looking at a public venture … with a couple people here in the city that I think would be profound and lucrative,” he said. “I also am looking at another position that I will absolutely not talk about. Regardless, I am going to do well no matter what. As I stated, my future is bright. If I don’t work another day in my life I’ll be OK. I’m not just a police chief.”

Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3301.

Prosecutors have dropped a criminal case against an investigator for the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office, months after a dramatic court hearing in which she was led away in handcuffs and accused of kidnapping the alleged victims in a child rape case in order to get an interview.

Emily Beasley, 22, was facing a simple kidnapping charge and a contempt of court conviction on July 15. But by Dec. 16, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office refused charges after all.

“Cooler heads prevailed, ” said Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton. “She was doing her job. Emily continues to work for us and she has been fully reinstated.”

Judge Frank Marullo had earlier dismissed the contempt of court charge against Beasley for speaking with the two girls at the center of the rape case outside their home.

Troy Harris, 40, is due to stand trial on aggravated rape, kidnapping and indecent behavior with a juvenile under age 13 on Feb. 24 at Criminal District Court. He remains jailed without bond.

Harris is accused of raping a 12-year-old girl two years ago while her younger sister watched.

Beasley visited the two girls on July 9 after their mother told the defenders office not to speak to her or her children, the mother testified in July.

Beasley spent at least one hour talking to the girls on the steps of a church across the street from their apartment building, prosecutors said.

What prosecutors and Marullo called a violation of Louisiana law protecting victims of crime, the public defenders program called fair representation of indigent defendants that the New Orleans system hadn’t seen since Hurricane Katrina dismantled the office and a new wave of defense lawyers arrived.

If convicted of the rape charge, Harris will receive mandatory life in prison.

Two months after the July hearing, public defender Kendall Green, who was found in contempt of court in the matter but by September the case was reversed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, withdrew his office from representing Harris.

Marullo appointed Arthur “Buddy” Lemann III to defend Harris.

“Passions run high when children are involved, ” Bunton said, explaining the initial kidnapping arrest for Beasley. “The right call was made.”

Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen was arrested on Christmas Day after cops in Aspen, Colorado received a phone call from his wife Brooke Mueller claiming that he had allegedly hit her.

When police officers arrived on the scene, they gave both Charlie and Brooke blood alcohol tests. Charlie did fine with just a .04 but Brooke registered a .13.

Let’s make a note that Mueller called the cops at 8:34AM. Who is drunk that early in the morning?

TMZ reports that Brooke even told a female cop right before the bail hearing that she was drunk when she made the phone call.

Charlie was booked for two felonies and one misdemeanor relating to domestic violence but he is claiming that he was just trying to defend himself and his wife happened to be the aggressor.

Charlie is due back in court on February 8.

Three people, including a brother and sister, were fatally shot and another woman critically wounded late Thursday night in a home invasion in the St. Roch neighborhood.

Inside a bedroom, the suspects killed two women with an assault rifle and wounded a third woman. They used a handgun to execute a young man in the rear yard, authorities said. They spared only a toddler.
MURDERS010910.jpg

The attack took place shortly before midnight inside a shotgun double in the 2700 block of Urquhart Street, a tough, residential neighborhood with houses cheek by jowl.

New Orleans police officers, responding to a report of a burglary, found the door ajar. Inside they discovered the female victims.

Kewanda Harris, 30, was killed by an assault rifle in one of the bedrooms. Her partner, Karen Matthews, who is in her 20s, had been fatally shot as well, according to John Gagliano, the spokesman for the Orleans Parish coroner who released the identities. Relatives and a neighbor confirmed their relationship.

Another woman, 26, was found alive but severely wounded. She was taken to LSU Interim Public Hospital in critical condition.

Desmond Harris, Kewanda’s 23-year-old brother, had been shot in the head and fell face-down in the rear yard, authorities said.

Police believe that the motive in the slayings revolves around drugs, which were often sold from the house.

“It appears that the shooting involved the sale and distribution of narcotics from that home,” said Marlon Defillo, assistant police superintendent. “We are trying to determine whether it was a drug rip-off or something else.”

Defillo said Friday evening that detectives had worked through the night and were pursing some “very good leads.”

By midmorning Friday, the house had been cordoned off, its front door affixed with a sticker from the coroner’s office. Two homicide detectives huddled in the cold as crime scene technicians snapped photographs in the rear yard of the coffee-colored home, which had sheets covering the windows.

Next-door neighbor Wallace Welsh, 45, said people frequently sold drugs in and around the home, and that drug sales are an ongoing issue in the neighborhood. Welsh, who confirmed their identities and relationships, said he heard little at the time of the incident and learned of the shooting when police arrived. He said he is haunted by what he saw.

Karen Harris, 44, a cousin of both Desmond and Kewanda Harris, said in an interview that her relatives grew up in the Magnolia public housing complex and recently settled into the Urquhart apartment.

She added that Desmond was the outgoing sibling, a “hard-working and fun-loving man,” employed at the Cat’s Meow nightclub on Bourbon Street. A manager there declined to comment Friday.

She also said Kewanda Harris was quiet, respectful and very much in love with her girlfriend.

Karen Harris had no answers for the motive in the killing of her cousins.

“I’m trying to find out myself,” she said.

Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3301.