http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=211
SAF VICTORY IN NEW ORLEANS, JUDGE GRANTS CONTEMPT MOTION
For Immediate Release: 2/13/2007
BELLEVUE, WA - A United States District Judge in New Orleans has granted
a motion to hold Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren
Riley in contempt for failure to provide initial disclosures and answers
to discovery in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation.
Judge Carl J. Barbier issued a blistering rebuke to New Orleans’ defense
counsel for conduct that is "wholly unprofessional" and warned that it
"shall not be condoned." Judge Barbier ordered defense counsel to
reimburse SAF’s attorney $1,365. SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the
National Rifle Association.
In his ruling, Judge Barbier noted, "Defense counsel has caused time and
money to be wasted by Plaintiffs’ counsel and further admits that he has
‘no good reason’ to explain his behavior."
"Throughout the past 17 months," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb, "our
attorneys have acted professionally and they have been stonewalled or
ignored by the city and especially its defense attorney. This seems to
be the only thing that gets their attention, and it appears that Judge
Barbier’s patience has grown as thin as our own."
"We gave New Orleans every opportunity to act like adults and deal with
this lawsuit in a professional manner," Gottlieb said, "and they’ve
acted as if this case didn’t exist. Judge Barbier’s ruling is a wake-up
call.
"They seem to forget that we went to court over a serious civil rights
violation," Gottlieb continued. "In the days following Hurricane
Katrina, New Orleans dispatched police officers and National Guard
troopers to confiscate firearms. In many cases, citizens were disarmed
at gunpoint, without warrant and without probable cause. Nagin and
Riley, and every other official in New Orleans who was part of this
outrage, need to understand that the Constitution may not be suspended
in New Orleans or anywhere else by a natural disaster, or on somebody’s
whim.
"This is the first step toward forcing New Orleans to return seized
firearms to their rightful owners, and in our effort to find out who
issued that illegal order, and hold them responsible," Gottlieb stated.
"We will not rest until this case is resolved."
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
"You can without fail judge the worthiness of any hysteria-du-jour. If
the usual suspects are behind it, put one hand on your wallet and the
other on your privates and lock your door and load your guns. They're
coming for you.
Cui bono? Not the people but the regulators. But it was ever thus."
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