AP News, November 9th, 2007
Fired workers seized several bank accounts of the prosecutor's office Thursday, including the one for its payroll, as they seek payment of $3.3 million left to be paid from a discrimination judgment, a lawyer said.
It was not immediately clear how the operations of the office would be affected. Dalton Savwoir, a spokesman for acting District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson, said staff members were to be paid next week and would stay on the job.
"We're just working to get this resolved," he said.
Virtually all the 36 plaintiffs are white and were replaced with black workers after Eddie Jordan became district attorney in 2003. Jordan, who is black, maintains race played no role in the firings.
The fired workers have collected only a portion of what they are owed.
"We're frustrated, and they don't want to pay us," plaintiffs' attorney Clem Donelon said.
A federal judge issued the seizure order Wednesday listing New Orleans-based Liberty Bank and Trust Co. as the garnishee, and it was served Thursday, Donelon said. He did not know how much money was in the office's accounts.
The bank has 15 days to disclose that and to hand over the funds, said Richard Leefe, another attorney for the plaintiffs.
Jordan resigned last week amid mounting criticism as high-profile cases fell apart, veteran prosecutors left and the city's violent crime rate soared. Long before the judgment threatened to bankrupt the office, charges had been dropped and a backlog of criminal cases moved slowly through the courts.
The discrimination judgment renewed calls for his ouster.
Jordan, who was not personally liable, paid about $300,000 on the judgment from office funds before stepping down.
The payment was meant to be a "good-faith effort that would allow the office a reasonable amount of time to explore all possible resolutions," Landrum-Johnson said.
Jordan had said the district attorney's office did not have the resources to pay the judgment.
Mayor Ray Nagin said the city — still recovering from Hurricane Katrina — doesn't have the money, either. The city and state are disputing who has responsibility for the office.
Savwoir declined to provide updated contact information for Jordan.
"Mr. Jordan wouldn't want to be bothered with this, I can tell you that," he said.
(This version CORRECTS attribution on how long bank has to turn over the money).)
