N. Orleans mayor and police chief held in contempt of court

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http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/02-13-2007/0004526882&EDATE=TUE+Feb+13+2007,+01:47+PM

BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- A United States
District Judge in New Orleans has granted a motion to hold Mayor C.
Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley in contempt for
failure to provide initial disclosures and answers to discovery in a
lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation.

Judge Carl J. Barbier issued a blistering rebuke to New Orleans'
defense counsel for conduct that is "wholly unprofessional" and
warned that it "shall not be condoned." Judge Barbier ordered defense
counsel to reimburse SAF's attorney $1,365. SAF is joined in the
lawsuit by the National Rifle Association.

In his ruling, Judge Barbier noted, "Defense counsel has caused time
and money to be wasted by Plaintiffs' counsel and further admits that
he has 'no good reason' to explain his behavior."

"Throughout the past 17 months," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb,
"our attorneys have acted professionally and they have been
stonewalled or ignored by the city and especially its defense
attorney. This seems to be the only thing that gets their attention,
and it appears that Judge Barbier's patience has grown as thin as our own."

"We gave New Orleans every opportunity to act like adults and deal
with this lawsuit in a professional manner," Gottlieb said, "and
they've acted as if this case didn't exist. Judge Barbier's ruling is
a wake-up call.

"They seem to forget that we went to court over a serious civil
rights violation," Gottlieb continued. "In the days following
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans dispatched police officers and
National Guard troopers to confiscate firearms. In many cases,
citizens were disarmed at gunpoint, without warrant and without
probable cause. Nagin and Riley, and every other official in New
Orleans who was part of this outrage, need to understand that the
Constitution may not be suspended in New Orleans or anywhere else by
a natural disaster, or on somebody's whim.

"This is the first step toward forcing New Orleans to return seized
firearms to their rightful owners, and in our effort to find out who
issued that illegal order, and hold them responsible, " Gottlieb
stated. "We will not rest until this case is resolved."