SAF Files Contempt Motion against Nagin, Riley
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A hearing was scheduled Jan. 31 on a motion filed in federal court in New Orleans by attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) to hold Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley in contempt.
This action stems from the federal lawsuit filed in 2005 against Nagin, Riley and the city to stop the confiscation of firearms from law-abiding New Orleans residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Joining SAF in the lawsuit was the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Plaintiff’s attorney Dan Holliday told Gun Week that the city has been consistently non-responsive, and even missed a deadline to provide information during the discovery process which was due Dec. 12 of last year.
“Non-existent describes their response precisely,” Holliday said in an e-mail.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said the contempt motion came only after attorneys for SAF and NRA repeatedly gave ample opportunity for Nagin, Riley and the city to cooperate.
“There comes a time when patience runs out,” Gottlieb said, “and people need to be held accountable for what amounts to an arrogant disregard for the seriousness of this lawsuit and the rights of New Orleans gunowners.”
The landmark lawsuit was something of a first with NRA and SAF joining forces to stop the aggressive confiscation of firearms from residents in the storm-ravaged city and neighboring St. Tammany Parish. The St. Tammany sheriff months ago agreed to a permanent injunction and began returning seized guns on the day the original temporary restraining order was issued in late September 2005.
But in New Orleans, the situation has been far different. Initially, the city denied it had confiscated anyone’s firearm, even after attorneys for SAF and NRA provided the court with documented evidence that police and National Guard troopers had been ordered to do so. In the days following the storm, Riley and his predecessor, former Superintendent Eddie Compass, were widely quoted stating that nobody but the police would be allowed to have firearms.
In one of the most shocking few seconds of video to emerge from the Katrina story, courtesy a San Francisco-based news crew, visiting California Highway Patrol officers were filmed tackling and disarming tiny Patricia Konie in her New Orleans home to take her gun. Konie’s home was high and dry following the storm and flooding, she had food and water, and even asked the police to leave her alone. She showed them an old Colt revolver to prove she could take care of herself, and within seconds, she was slammed to the floor of her home by two burly cops who took the gun and forced her to evacuate.
NRA has produced a documentary about the Katrina aftermath that has outraged gun rights activists across the country.
Equally outrageous, according to Gottlieb, has been the conduct of Nagin, Riley and the city in dealing with the lawsuit. He suggested that the city has been stonewalling the issue, perhaps in hopes that it will simply go away.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Gottlieb said.
He recalled that when the lawsuit was originally filed, the city insisted it had taken nobody’s guns, and essentially ignored the fact that a temporary restraining order had been granted by the federal court. Following many weeks of silence from the city even after repeated attempts by Holliday to get some kind of response to mail and phone calls, SAF and NRA decided to file a contempt motion.
On the day the motion was to have been heard, an attorney for the city admitted to Holliday and attorney Stephen Halbrook that guns had indeed been confiscated, and that they were being held at a facility in the city. Holliday and Halbrook were taken to that facility, where they observed an estimated 1,100 firearms. In separate interviews, both attorneys told Gun Week that the city had agreed to set up a procedure to return those firearms. That headed off the earlier contempt motion.
But almost immediately the city tacked on rigid requirements for anyone wanting to retrieve their gun, and few appear to have been returned. The situation has languished for months, with a few gun rights activists erroneously claiming NRA and SAF had cut some kind of “compromise” with the city. In fact, there has not been any kind of deal with the city, and both organizations are pursuing the lawsuit.
Gottlieb said it has been one frustrating experience after another.
“Mayor Nagin, Chief Riley and the city’s attorney have repeatedly failed to communicate with our legal counsel, even for the most trivial of matters related to this lawsuit,” he said. “We were prepared to file this (contempt) motion months ago, but gave the city several opportunities to comply with the court, and to begin returning seized firearms to their rightful owners. They haven’t done it.
“The city’s behavior in this matter, and particularly that of Mayor Nagin and Chief Riley, is nothing short of despicable, and it is time for them to behave like adults,” Gottlieb said. “Since the day the city began seizing firearms, Nagin and Riley have acted as though they are above the law. It is time they learned otherwise.”
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