10-year sentence for ex-New Orleans Mayor Nagin

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Well Mr. Choclate city I suppose this was Bushs fault also

http://news.yahoo.com/10-sentence-ex-orleans-mayor-nagin-151709095.html

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for bribery, money laundering and other corruption that spanned his two terms as mayor — including the chaotic years after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
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U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan handed down the sentence Wednesday morning.

Nagin was convicted Feb. 12 of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen who wanted work from the city or Nagin's support for various projects. The bribes came in the form of money, free vacations and truckloads of free granite for his family business.

The 58-year-old Democrat had defiantly denied any wrongdoing after his 2013 indictment and during his February trial.

Moments before sentencing, a subdued Nagin made a brief statement, thanking the judge for her professionalism. He made no apologies. "I trust that God's going to work all this out," he said.

After the sentencing Nagin smiled and hugged supporters as he walked out of the courtroom with his wife, Seletha, and other family members and friends.
Nagin arrives at federal court Play Video
Nagin arrives at federal court

Nagin is scheduled to report to the federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, in September.

Berrigan noted the serious nature of the crimes but cited several other factors in her decision to depart from sentencing guidelines that could have put Nagin in prison for as many as 20 years.

She said Nagin should not be cast as the leader of the scheme in which participants got millions of dollars in city work. "Mr. Nagin claimed a much, much smaller share of the profits in this conspiracy," Berrigan.

Nagin was alleged to have received roughly a half million dollars.

She noted character references showing him to be a devoted son, husband and father. And she said, despite his crimes, Nagin displayed "a genuine if all too infrequent" desire to help New Orleans and its residents after the 2005 catastrophe.

Nagin was a political newcomer when he won election as New Orleans' mayor, succeeding Marc Morial in 2002. He cast himself as a reformer and announced crackdowns on corruption in the city's automobile-inspection and taxi-permit programs. But federal prosecutors say his own corrupt acts began during his first term, continued through the Katrina catastrophe and flourished in his second term.

Until his indictment in 2013, he was perhaps best known for a widely heard radio interview in which he angrily, and sometimes profanely, asked for stepped-up federal response in the days after levee breaches flooded most of the city during Katrina.

He also drew notoriety for impolitic remarks, such as the racially charged "New Orleans will be chocolate again" and his comment that a growing violent crime problem "keeps the New Orleans brand out there."

Elected in 2002 with strong support from the business community and white voters, Nagin won re-election in 2006 with a campaign that sometimes played on fears among black voters that they were being left out of the city's spotty recovery. He was limited by law to two consecutive terms but a third term would have been unlikely, giving plunging approval ratings and the stricken city's continued recovery struggles. He was succeeded in 2010 by Mitch Landrieu.

Most government pre-sentence reports and recommendations were not made public but a filing by Jenkins ahead of the sentencing hearing indicated prosecutors were pushing for a sentence of 20 years or more under federal sentencing guidelines.

Defense attorney Robert Jenkins said that would amount to a virtual life sentence for the former mayor. Jenkins said Nagin's family needs him, there is no danger of Nagin committing more crimes and that the crimes for which Nagin was convicted constituted an aberration from an otherwise model life.

Prosecutors said the schemes that led to Nagin's conviction included two family members: His two grown sons were never charged with a crime but they were part of the family business that received free granite from a contractor. They also said that what Jenkins calls an "aberration" was behavior that spanned six years and involved multiple contractors.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Perhaps he and Jessie JR can get together for a game of cards.

[Darnell 8,478]

I hope the sentencing phase is brutal.

I hate that man, truly.

[unsmiley 111]

Another in a seemingly never ending list of corrupt politicians.

I wonder what that talent-free Kanye would say about Nagin... Maybe something like: "Ray Nagin doesn't care about black people, he stole millions from them."

[lostinblue 1,989]

Another in a seemingly never ending list of corrupt politicians.

I wonder what that talent-free Kanye would say about Nagin... Maybe something like: "Ray Nagin doesn't care about black people, he stole millions from them."

Black folks died because of a liberal running the city....A Train (empty) left the city shortly before the hurricane hit....A thousand poor folks could have been on it. Instead they went to the Super Dome ,,And died in later days...

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Black folks died because of a liberal running the city....A Train (empty) left the city shortly before the hurricane hit....A thousand poor folks could have been on it. Instead they went to the Super Dome ,,And died in later days...

Then why don't conservatives do a better job, because you know, they're so eager to go and help out the black community.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The biggest human error ....both Nagin/Gov. Blanco made costing many lives was that they didn’t declare a MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans until it was too late!......I wonder if the kenyan will add Nagin to his “Presidential Pardon” list?

[UncleBeer 244]

I wonder if the kenyan will add Nagin to his “Presidential Pardon” list?

Betcha Holder will strongly recommend it, since Nagin is one of "his people".

[Teddy B 17,252]

I hope the sentencing phase is brutal.

I hate that man, truly.

Agreed. I can't remember any other politician who got me as angered as this man did. Total scumbag Ray Nagin.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

The biggest human error ....both Nagin/Gov. Blanco made costing many lives was that they didn’t declare a MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans until it was too late!......I wonder if the kenyan will add Nagin to his “Presidential Pardon” list?

You are mistaken. It was all Bushs fault.

[unsmiley 111]

Then why don't conservatives do a better job, because you know, they're so eager to go and help out the black community.

Conservatives likely would have done a better job (actually anyone else would have done a better job), but we will never know because blacks almost exclusively elect liberal politicians.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Conservatives likely would have done a better job (actually anyone else would have done a better job), but we will never know because blacks almost exclusively elect liberal politicians.

Really? Show me where a conservative actually wanted to go down and clean things up.

[unsmiley 111]

Really? Show me where a conservative actually wanted to go down and clean things up.

That ain't my point, and you know it. My point is that blacks never elect conservatives. What was it, for example... some 95% of blacks voted for Obama.

And do you actually think that conservatives would go out of their way not to help? That is silly.

Edited July 10, 2014 by unsmiley

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Then why don't conservatives do a better job, because you know, they're so eager to go and help out the black community.

Because maybe the population of New Orleans did not elect one ? just guessing

You know it's very important among the Nagin crowd, the first and foremost the City remain chocolate. All else is secondary

Really? Show me where a conservative actually wanted to go down and clean things up.

Let me understand. They vote for a crooked liberal, but you expect conservatives to step in and make sure things run correctly. Thats funny

[JohnR! 5,495]

Conservatives likely would have done a better job (actually anyone else would have done a better job), but we will never know because blacks almost exclusively elect liberal politicians.

They would not. Likely a conservative mayor would have done a much worse job and many more would have perished.