RAY NAGAN IS "THE CUE BALD" @ LOUISIANA BLOGGERS CLUB!

RAY NAGAN IS "THE CUE BALD" @ LOUISIANA BLOGGERS CLUB!
By Gordon Russell, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on January 24, 2013 at 5:26 PM, updated January 24, 2013 at 6:14 PM
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Perhaps Sal Perricone's most infamous online remark took aim at then-Mayor Ray Nagin. As "campstblue," a moniker Perricone has admitted using, he posted this at NOLA.com in 2009: "For all of you who have a penchant for firearms and how they work, Ray Nagin lives on Park Island."
ray-nagin-today.jpgFormer New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, in April 2010. Nagin, who now lives in Frisco, Texas, is due to be arraigned at federal court Feb. 20.Susan Poag / The Times-Picayune
When it emerged last year that it was Perricone who made that remark, Nagin reacted with outrage, tweeting that a "top prosecutor in U.S. Attorney's Office blogged my home address and for someone with guns to assassinate me. Shocking!"
A couple of other Perricone remarks posited that Nagin might be more corrupt than his predecessor, Marc Morial. It does not appear that former First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, who has also admitted to online commenting about probe targets, had much to say about Nagin, who became a target of the office when Perricone and Mann were still there.
Legal observers have been speculating that the commenting scandal at the U.S. Attorney's office -- which has resulted in the resignations of most of the office's senior management, including longtime U.S. Attorney Jim Letten -- could have some kind of impact on the prosecution of Nagin. But what sort of impact?
Some still figure that Nagin -- who faces 21 counts related to an alleged bribery scheme -- will at least take a run at a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. His lawyer, Robert Jenkins, also represents Aaron Broussard, who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge last year, but has since sought to make hay from the commenting brouhaha.
Broussard's effort evidently met its end Wednesday, when a federal judge shot down his request for an evidentiary hearing. The judge noted that the relief Broussard would likely have sought -- taking Letten's office off the case -- had largely been achieved with the resignations of Letten and his top brass.
"There is a new sheriff in town," wrote U.S. District Judge Hayden Head in rejecting Broussard's argument.
"Guess what: They usually think the people they indict are bad people." Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman
The same logic would likely apply to Nagin's case, according to Loyola Law School professor Dane Ciolino and Bennett Gershman, a Pace University professor and an expert on prosecutorial misconduct cases.
Ray Nagin Indictment
Enlarge NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune With only days to go until he leaves office May 3 after his second term in office , New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reflected on the events of the past eight years Friday, April 23, 2010. (Photo by Susan Poag, NOLA.com / the Times-Picayune) Players in the Ray Nagin saga gallery (15 photos)
Nagin's case is being heard by U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan, who has heard similar misconduct claims in overseeing the cases of indicted River Birch landfill executive Dominick Fazzio and his brother-in-law, Mark Titus. Berrigan at one point granted an evidentiary hearing, citing the "troubled history" of the prosecution, but ultimately she denied any relief to either defendant."If I was a defense lawyer, I'd probably try to do something with it even though it's far-fetched," Gershman said. But that's what lawyers do.
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