Judge Refuses To Bar Lawyer From Katrina Case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has refused to disqualify a lawyer from representing one of six current or former New Orleans police officers charged in deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina. Prosecutors said attorney Eric Hessler has a potential conflict of interest in defending Sgt. Robert Gisevius against charges stemming from the fatal shootings of two people and wounding of four others on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the 2005 storm. Hessler had represented Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, another defendant in the Danziger case, after he shot a man in 2001. On Thursday, however, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled that prosecutors' "unsettled allegations" about the 2001 shooting don't warrant barring Hessler from representing Gisevius.