2/13/07
BELLEVUE, WA – 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.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org)
is the nations oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research,
publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional
right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded
in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members
and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform
the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously
funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of
Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American
gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and
an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second
Amendment as an individual right.
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