Press Releases
EX-NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON
FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
October 2, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DONALD BATTISTE, a former New Orleans Police Officer, was sentenced in federal court yesterday by United States District Judge Carl J. Barbier to fifty-seven (57) months imprisonment, following his conviction for civil rights violations, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
According to court documents, on April 2, 2008, BATTISTE pled guilty to two counts of deprivation of civil rights while acting under color of law as a commissioned officer. BATTISTE admitted that while on duty and in uniform on October 6, 2006, he robbed and beat a person who posed as an itinerant worker. That person was actually a decoy in a sting operation, or “integrity check,” conducted by the New Orleans Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau. The incident was monitored by PIB agents and, in addition, was captured on video tape.
The case was investigated by the Public Integrity Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael E. McMahon.
