Jury Says New Orleans DA Guilty of Bias (against whites)

[Rose Siding]

NEW ORLEANS Mar 30, 2005 — New Orleans' first black district attorney discriminated against 43 whites when he fired them en masse and replaced them with blacks upon taking office in 2003, a federal jury decided Wednesday. The jury awarded the employees about $1.8 million in back pay and damages.

The jury made up of eight whites and two blacks returned the unanimous verdict in the third day of deliberations in the racial discrimination case against District Attorney Eddie Jordan.

Jordan acknowledged he wanted to make the office more reflective of the city's racial makeup, but denied he fired whites just because they are white. In fact, he said, he did not know the race of the people fired.

Under U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's instructions, jurors had to find Jordan liable if they concluded the firings were racially motivated. The law bars the mass firing of a specific group, even if the intent is to create diversity.
....
"We thought the facts as well as the law favored us. I still maintain that I did not use race as a factor in my hiring practices," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=627411&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Sgent]

1. This idiot

came into office and unilatterally fired every single ADA on staff. It disruptted coutless cases, resulted in many criminals walking free, and was a general disaster for law enforcement in New Orleans.

I don't know that it was racially biased, but it was a dumbass manouver. If he really felt it was needed to insure racial diversity, he should have at least retained the DA's through the end of their open cases. Murder's went free because of this idiot.

Yes, I have personal knowledge of this situation.

[salin]

2. At the time

it read as if it was a neophyte (newbie to this type of position - and not thinking through the actions of doing this so broad sweepingly.)

Sorry that the reprecussions sound as if they were far greater than what oft is the case with big early blunders of new office holders.