Deal reached in New Orleans DA discrimination case

NY Times:

A multimillion-dollar race discrimination judgment that had threatened to shut down the district attorney’s office here will be paid largely by the state and the city, officials announced here on Tuesday.

In 2005, a federal jury awarded $3.7 million to dozens of white employees fired by the district attorney, Eddie Jordan, soon after he had taken office two years earlier. It found that 43 employees had been fired for racial reasons.

Mr. Jordan, unable to pay the amount, was forced out of office last month as a result, having also lost the support of officials and residents because of dismal prosecutorial results.

His office’s disarray was compounded in recent months by threats from the fired employees, through their lawyers, to begin seizing some of its assets, including payroll accounts.

Several former prosecutors described the firing of the employees, including virtually all the investigative staff, as devastating to the office’s performance. State and city officials, furious at Mr. Jordan, refused to step in and help with a settlement until he was out of the picture.

On Tuesday, after weeks of negotiations and headlines about a possible shutdown, Mayor C. Ray Nagin and others announced that the state would pay about $1.6 million, the city about $1.1 million, and the district attorney’s office $600,000 to satisfy the judgment.

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It seems clear that Jordon's main priority was not in prosecuting crime, just from the results he achieved. This suit appears to show what one of his priorities was. He disgraced his office and the city. His departure will be regretted by few. Now much of the rest of the state will have to pay for his mistakes.