Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin indicted on federal corruption charges

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been indicted by a grand jury on 21 federal corruption counts.

The 25-page indictment that came down Friday included charges of conspiracy, money laundering and wire fraud. Nagin, 56, has been issued a summons to appear in court.

Nagin’s sons Jeremy Nagin and Jarin Nagin were not indicted but still face exposure, as does his wife Seletha Nagin because of his the charge involving false tax returns.

The case has been assigned to Judge Ginger Berrigan.

The indictment puts a highly anticipated cap on Nagin’s long fall from grace. The former Cox Communications executive was a political novice when he swept into office in 2002 by promising to bring a businessman’s attitude and high-tech savvy to City Hall and root out corruption.

But after ballyhooed crackdowns early in his first term, Nagin’s personal business interests and technology office became vehicles of alleged corruption, rather than the tools of good government.

St. Pierre freebies

Nagin’s image as a crime fighter first started to crumble in 2006 and 2007, when the blog American Zombie and Gordon Russell of The Times-Picayune exposed inside dealing in Nagin’s technology office. The stories and blog posts focused on Nagin’s tech chief (and neighbor) Greg Meffert, who proclaimed himself Nagin’s “deputy mayor” (even though no such title existed) and bragged about giving his boss free yacht parties and vacations.

The reports were the first inkling that technology office vendor Mark St. Pierre was the one who actually provided the yacht, not the blustery Meffert. In March 2009, when I was at The Times-Picayune, I confronted Nagin about a trip he and his family took to Hawaii in December 2004, paid for by St. Pierre’s company NetMethods. Nagin told me it was a personal trip and a vendor had not paid for it. But a week later, a deposition Meffert gave for a civil trial emerged, and Meffert’s testimony confirmed that St. Pierre did indeed pay for the Hawaii trip.

I loathe this creature. Whenever I saw him on television he made my skin crawl.

I can't stand him either. He and Blank0 should have been tried for criminal negligence for the death of 1800+ people for their criminal incompetence during Katrina.

The Chocolate Mayor is a Rat Pol in LA. If convicted, he will get 6 days in jail, reduced to an hour and a $32 dollar fine payable by third party out of state check.

Actually he won't get off that easy. Former Gov. Edwin Edwards served his entire term in federal prison. He was denied early release every time it came around. It's been that way for years now.

Quote: steph wrote in post #6

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Actually he won't get off that easy. Former Gov. Edwin Edwards served his entire term in federal prison. He was denied early release every time it came around. It's been that way for years now.

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