News Roundup

Judge: Couple Has Right To Trial In Katrina Bridge Blockade Case

City Business
by AP

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans civil judge has ruled that a case brought by a couple who were turned back by police when they tried to cross a Mississippi River bridge following Hurricane Katrina should be heard by a court.

Judge Madeleine M. Landrieu ruled Friday that Kevin McCusker and his wife have the right to be heard on charges that the city of Gretna and its police department caused the couple mental and physical harm.

Landrieu, however, threw out part of the lawsuit accusing the authorities of false imprisonment of the couple.

McCusker’s lawsuit is the only one in state court stemming from the bridge blockade in the chaotic days following Katrina. There is also an effort in federal court to allow a class action suit to be brought against the police and others who were not allowed to cross the bridge following the Aug. 29, 2005 hurricane.

Beginning on Aug. 31, 2005, and continuing for at least five days, Gretna police, Crescent City Connection bridge police and Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s deputies turned back hundreds of people trying to walk across the bridge to escape the misery of New Orleans, which was flooded, blacked out and in short suppy of food and drinking water.

The incident sparked outrage among civil rights leaders and led to an investigation by then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, who publicly confirmed that warning shots were fired over the heads of the crowd. Foti’s report on the incident was turned over to the New Orleans district attorney. A grand jury declined to indict anyone.