Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was found guilty of accepting payoff for city contracts. The 57-year-old frormer mayor, who presided over the city during Hurricane Katrina was convicted for 20 of the 21 counts leveled against him.
The jury deliberated for six and a half hours before finding Nagin guilty on Wednesday afternoon, concluding a seven-day trial during which more than 30 witnesses testified, including businessmen who pleaded guilty to bribing Nagin in return for contracting work with the city, The New York Times reported. Nagin accepted bribes, free trips and other gratuities, the jurors concluded.
Nagin, who left office in 2010 after eight years, was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of local businessman Frank Fradella. He was also charged with accepting thousands of dollars in in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts.
The guilty verdict contrasts to Nagin's testimony this past week, which was contentious as he sparred with the prosecutor. Nagin called all charges as misleading and misinformed.
The jury, however, disagreed and while Nagin will remain free on bond, he awaits his sentencing as each of the charges carries a sentence of three to twenty years.
"We're probably looking close to 20 years that Nagin will probably serve... It was a fairly easy case for the government. The government is very effective at connecting the dots, drawing a straight line in terms of money, influence directed at Ray Nagin," said Dr. Silas Lee, a political analyst.
"The job of Ray Nagin's defense team was to disconnect those dots, and say, 'no it's not a straight line,' and that was very difficult given the testimony, given the fact that they were able to show a money trail. Most importantly, now it's the digital footprint... the emails, the tweets; those things linked Ray Nagin to the concept of conspiracy and bribery," Dr. Lee said.
It was technology that helped linked Nagin to the charges, according to Dr. Lee's analysis.
"What we have to remember about technology is: Delete is not DELETE. It is always on the server.You can always retrieve it. You saw Ray Nagin try to circumvent that because they tried to use another kind of technology whereby it would no longer be on the server. Then they tried to delete things on the calendar. All of that can be retrieved. That's the thing about technology, it is eternal," added Dr. Lee.
"He's a whipped dog now," added Pat Fanning, a legal analyst in New Orleans.
"He's got a harsh dose of reality that this jury sent to him, and now all he can think about is: The Fifth Circuit reverses the criminal cases about 2% of the time, so he's got a 98% if the conviction is affirmed, and he gets a long prison term, so it's really depressing for him," said Fanning.
"Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans and plunging the city into chaos," The Associated Press reported.
His legacy as mayor was mixed, as he, a Democrat received flak for not working well with then Republican Governor Kathleen Blanco in the face of the enormity of the storm. Both had been blamed for a lack of preparedness and lax coordination between the city and the state. At least 1,833 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.
Nagin, the 60th mayor of New Orleans, was formerly a consultant and entrepreneur, achieving success in the private sector.
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