Sentencing nears for former New Orleans mayor (AP) Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s steep descent from the days when he was seen as a fresh-faced reformer continues this week when he is sentenced in federal court on 20 criminal charges counts including bribery, money laundering and fraud. Defense attorney Robert Jenkins will ask for leniency when Nagin a Democrat who served from 2002-2010 stands before U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan on Wednesday. In court papers, Jenkins says the 20-plus years sought by prosecutors amount to a “life sentence” for the 58-year-old Nagin and would deprive his teenage daughter of her father. Prosecutors say a stiff sentence is just, given the seriousness of the crimes and Nagin’s repeated denials. They say his actions harmed the city before and especially after the Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. Nagin was a cable television executive and political newcomer when he captured the mayor’s office in 2002 with a promise to clean up corruption. He is perhaps best known for a radio interview three years later in which he made an emotional, sometimes profane plea for stepped up federal help days after levees breached during Katrina. Most of the city had flooded, hundreds died and tens of thousands were [...] newsinfl/sentencing-nears-for-former-new-orleans-mayor/
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:30:53 +0000