New Orleans City Official Fires All White People Gets Sued

Only the city of New Orleans can pay off District Attorney Eddie Jordan's $3.7 million debt to the employees he wrongly fired in 2003, his office says in documents filed at federal court.

Having exhausted -- and lost -- a series of appeals over the federal civil rights case that originated in 2003, Jordan says his budget can't handle the verdict and that his only option is to persuade Mayor Ray Nagin to ask the City Council for the money owed to 36 workers who successfully sued him for employment discrimination.

A federal judge this week ruled that the award could come from assets of the district attorney's office, refusing to place any more delays on the judgment. Interest on the award grows by $20,000 a month.
Plaintiffs are through waiting, their attorneys said Tuesday, warning once again that they will seek to seize assets of the district attorney's office -- from payroll accounts to cars -- if Jordan's office does not pay up.

New Orleans, which since Hurricane Katrina has balanced its budget only by securing federal loans, will have to decide to pay Jordan's legal tab or risk watching the prosecutors' office shut down for financial reasons.

Jordan, the city's first African-American district attorney, violated employment discrimination laws when after taking office he ordered the wholesale firing of white employees and replaced almost all of them with black workers, a jury found more than two years ago.
Jordan wanted U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval to freeze the $3.7 million award until the city has a chance to approve a new budget that includes enough money to pay off the legal debt, but that didn't happen.

The district attorney has submitted a request to the City Council to provide the office with the money to pay the award, attorneys for Jordan said, and an approval by next month is "highly likely."
Nagin is scheduled to present his proposed 2008 budget to the City Council next week, and budget hearings will be held throughout November.

"Obviously, the city has to step up to the plate," said attorney Clement Donelon, who represents Judith DeCorte and 35 others who won at court two years ago. "We have a professional responsibility on behalf of our 36 clients to take all measures available to us within the law to get this judgment paid. We don't have any alternative."

Jordan's office wants the City Council to add the $3.7 million to the 2008 annual budget to cover the judgment. The DA's office lacks the property or cash to pay the judgment, a top aide said, and tapping its assets would provide only a fraction of the $3.7 million, but disrupt the entire criminal justice system in New Orleans.

"The disruption would be so severe that it would virtually shut down the DA's office and render it impossible (for it) to perform its functions," said Val Solino, an executive first assistant to Jordan, in an affidavit filed at federal court this month.

"If the DA's office is forced to close, even for a short period, the Orleans Criminal District Court may find itself without sufficient assistant district attorneys to prosecute approximately 2,500 cases, which are currently awaiting trial," Solino said.
And if paychecks were to bounce, the most experienced prosecutors probably would quit, Solino said.

Donelon agreed that seizing payroll money and property from the district attorney's office could bring "catastrophic" results.
"We cannot sit by and wait and just keep our fingers crossed," Donelon said. "We are not charged with keeping the DA's office open."
Solino warned that if the plaintiffs move to freeze payroll accounts, Jordan's office will lose its most experienced prosecutors.
"Dozens of incarcerated arrestees accused of committing felony-grade offenses inevitably will also be impacted, potentially resulting in the release of violent offenders into the population," Solino said in the affidavit.

"Even a short disruption in payroll will cause the loss of those attorneys, and replacing them is not a realistic possibility," Solino said. "The collateral consequences of the shutdown of the DA's office will cause significant disruptions throughout the entire Orleans criminal justice system."

The original verdict was $1.9 million in back pay and benefits. Jordan has said he will appeal to the United States Supreme Court, but he has not filed anything yet.

This reporter will give it to your real simple "New Orleans DA loses $3 million lawsuit after firing all the white people in his office. New Orleans DA now says the citizens of Chocolate City must foot the bill"

[FormerClone]

Originally Posted by M. Jackson

Only the city of New Orleans can pay off District Attorney Eddie Jordan's $3.7 million debt to the employees he wrongly fired in 2003, his office says in documents filed at federal court.

Having exhausted -- and lost -- a series of appeals over the federal civil rights case that originated in 2003, Jordan says his budget can't handle the verdict and that his only option is to persuade Mayor Ray Nagin to ask the City Council for the money owed to 36 workers who successfully sued him for employment discrimination.

A federal judge this week ruled that the award could come from assets of the district attorney's office, refusing to place any more delays on the judgment. Interest on the award grows by $20,000 a month.
Plaintiffs are through waiting, their attorneys said Tuesday, warning once again that they will seek to seize assets of the district attorney's office -- from payroll accounts to cars -- if Jordan's office does not pay up.

New Orleans, which since Hurricane Katrina has balanced its budget only by securing federal loans, will have to decide to pay Jordan's legal tab or risk watching the prosecutors' office shut down for financial reasons.

Jordan, the city's first African-American district attorney, violated employment discrimination laws when after taking office he ordered the wholesale firing of white employees and replaced almost all of them with black workers, a jury found more than two years ago.
Jordan wanted U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval to freeze the $3.7 million award until the city has a chance to approve a new budget that includes enough money to pay off the legal debt, but that didn't happen.

The district attorney has submitted a request to the City Council to provide the office with the money to pay the award, attorneys for Jordan said, and an approval by next month is "highly likely."
Nagin is scheduled to present his proposed 2008 budget to the City Council next week, and budget hearings will be held throughout November.

"Obviously, the city has to step up to the plate," said attorney Clement Donelon, who represents Judith DeCorte and 35 others who won at court two years ago. "We have a professional responsibility on behalf of our 36 clients to take all measures available to us within the law to get this judgment paid. We don't have any alternative."

Jordan's office wants the City Council to add the $3.7 million to the 2008 annual budget to cover the judgment. The DA's office lacks the property or cash to pay the judgment, a top aide said, and tapping its assets would provide only a fraction of the $3.7 million, but disrupt the entire criminal justice system in New Orleans.

"The disruption would be so severe that it would virtually shut down the DA's office and render it impossible (for it) to perform its functions," said Val Solino, an executive first assistant to Jordan, in an affidavit filed at federal court this month.

"If the DA's office is forced to close, even for a short period, the Orleans Criminal District Court may find itself without sufficient assistant district attorneys to prosecute approximately 2,500 cases, which are currently awaiting trial," Solino said.
And if paychecks were to bounce, the most experienced prosecutors probably would quit, Solino said.

Donelon agreed that seizing payroll money and property from the district attorney's office could bring "catastrophic" results.
"We cannot sit by and wait and just keep our fingers crossed," Donelon said. "We are not charged with keeping the DA's office open."
Solino warned that if the plaintiffs move to freeze payroll accounts, Jordan's office will lose its most experienced prosecutors.
"Dozens of incarcerated arrestees accused of committing felony-grade offenses inevitably will also be impacted, potentially resulting in the release of violent offenders into the population," Solino said in the affidavit.

"Even a short disruption in payroll will cause the loss of those attorneys, and replacing them is not a realistic possibility," Solino said. "The collateral consequences of the shutdown of the DA's office will cause significant disruptions throughout the entire Orleans criminal justice system."

The original verdict was $1.9 million in back pay and benefits. Jordan has said he will appeal to the United States Supreme Court, but he has not filed anything yet.

This reporter will give it to your real simple "New Orleans DA loses $3 million lawsuit after firing all the white people in his office. New Orleans DA now says the citizens of Chocolate City must foot the bill"

Who cares? After that city re-elected Ray Nagin after what he did to them with Hurricane Katrina, they deserve whatever comes to them. Sorry!