New Orleans, state to pay $3.4M judgment

The city and the state of Louisiana will pay the bulk of a $3.4 million racial discrimination judgment against the New Orleans District Attorney's Office, officials announced Tuesday.

The judgment was awarded to 36 employees, 35 white and one Hispanic, who were fired and replaced by black employees shortly after Eddie Jordan took over as the city's first black district attorney in 2003.

Under the agreement outlined at a conference, the city will pay about one third of the judgment, or more than $1.1 million. The state will pay about $1.6 million, subject to approval by a legislative committee later this year. The District Attorney's Office, which already has paid $300,000, will pay $300,000 more.

Although the total is less than earlier estimates of what is owed, Mayor Ray Nagin said attorneys representing the plaintiffs had agreed to the deal.

Reached out of town Tuesday, Richard Leefe, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said any comment on the deal was premature. "We've just decided not to talk about it at this time," Leefe said.

Jordan, who was not personally liable in the lawsuit, maintains race played no role in the firings.

He resigned last week amid mounting criticism as high-profile cases fell apart, veteran prosecutors left and the city's violent crime rate soared. Long before the judgment threatened to bankrupt the office, charges had been dropped and a backlog of criminal cases moved slowly through the courts.

The district attorney's office, with a $12 million annual budget, had struggled to find a way to pay the judgment while the city and state argued over who has responsibility for the office.

Nagin had earlier resisted bailing the district attorney's office out, saying it would set a dangerous president, but he said this deal avoids that.

"The city is advancing the money to the district attorney's office," Nagin said. "They will pay us back."

Getting the judgment settled will let the district attorney's office get back on track, said Keva Landrum-Johnson, who took over as district attorney after Jordan resigned.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs seized several of the district attorney's bank accounts this month, saying they had not heard from that office, the city or the state and needed some assurance their clients would get their money.

Those funds are to be returned to the office, Nagin said.