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« Reason on gun & product liability litigation | Main | One reason Philadelpha might have a crime problem »

New Orleans mayor held in contempt of court

Posted by David Hardy · 13 February 2007 11:56 AM

The SAF bulletin on the event is in extended remarks, below.

NEWS RELEASE

SAF VICTORY IN NEW ORLEANS, JUDGE GRANTS CONTEMPT MOTION

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.”

3 Comments | Leave a comment

Jim | February 13, 2007 4:31 PM | Reply

Score another one for the good guys. But so what? Did the judge lock them up? Until the contempt citation has some teeth the court will continue to be ignored.

Letalis | February 13, 2007 9:08 PM | Reply

A federal court is not going to put someone, particularly a government official, in jail over a discovery dispute. Be satisfied with what is possible: contempt, sanctions, payment of attorney fees and costs, and the probability that making the judge mad will predispose him to rule in your favor on the merits.

countertop | February 13, 2007 10:04 PM | Reply

Dave, do you have a copy of the actual order?

Would love to read it.

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