Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune just sent me this dramatic follow-up to his original reporting. Media scrutiny often forces the system to play by its own rules. Winn Parish DA Chris Nevils appears to be feeling the pressure from both directions on this one. He can get an indictment if he wishes–the old saw about DAs indicting a ham sandwich is only a slight exaggeration. If the grand jury refuses to indict it will be because Mr. Nevils has hinted strongly that he doesn’t want to pursue this case.
I’m not sure ex-officer Scott Nugent is guilty of murder. That depends on whether his bizarre behavior suggests an intent to cause death. But manslaughter charges are certainly warranted by the known facts.
Mr. Witt reprises the emphasis on local corruption we saw in his initial report. When the police chief is a drug offender pardoned by a corrupt ex-Governor you know you’ve got problems.
Just how common is this kind of corruption? Well, consider that Edwin Edwards, the ex-governor in question, drew the attention of the Department of Justice for receiving kickbacks from ex-Houston mayor Fred Hofheinz.
The plot thickens when you realize that one of the favors Edwards performed in exchange for the tainted money was agreeing to build a juvenile prison in Jena, Louisiana. That prison was subsequently closed in the aftermath of racially charged prisoner abuse. It re-opened in the wake of Katrina to house New Orleans prisoners on an emergency basis only to be closed again after new charges of racism and prisoner abuse surfaced.
The Jena prison has now reopened (in greatly expanded form) under the auspices of GeoCorp (formerly Wackenhut) as a private prison for illegal residents. Jena residents now have their third shot at staffing a prison without creating scandal.
But there’s more. One of the middle men in the Edwin Edwards scam was Patrick Graham, a Houston based con man who once sold six small West Texas counties on the idea of building private prisons in their communities. (I researched all of this when I was writing a book on the ill-famed Tulia drug sting.) One of the private prisons was built west of Tulia only to stand empty for several years before radical revisions to the Texas criminal justice system quadrupled the size of the prison population in a single decade (no, I’m not making this up).
In other words, Tulia, Jena and Winnfield are all wrapped up in the tentacles of official corruption engulfing the great states of Texas and Louisiana. More on this can be found here and here for those who are interested.
The corruption Howard Witt has rightly emphasized is not limited to Winnfield or to the state of Louisiana. Those of you who have read my stuff on Alvin Clay know that Arkansas is just as prone to corruption as Louisiana and Texas (and we haven’t even mentioned Mississippi).
Indictment sought for police Taser death in Louisiana
By Howard Witt
Tribune correspondent
10:54 AM CDT, July 28, 2008
HOUSTON
Seeking to defuse growing racial tensions in the small Louisiana town of Winnfield, the local district attorney announced Monday that he will seek an indictment against a white police officer for the death of a black man who was shocked nine times with a Taser device while handcuffed in police custody.
Winn Parish District Atty. Chris Nevils said he would convene a grand jury Aug. 12 to consider possible charges against the officer, Scott Nugent, 21, who was fired from the Winnfield Police Department following the death of Baron “Scooter” Pikes.
Pikes, 21, died Jan. 17 within 39 minutes of being arrested on a drug possession warrant. Winnfield police claimed Pikes told them he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP, but the local coroner found that Pikes had been healthy and had no drugs in his system. He ruled the death a homicide.
“Now is the time to take this case to the grand jury for a determination about whether charges should be brought,” Nevils said in a statement. “I know there are strong feelings on both sides of this matter. But my obligation, and that of the grand jury, is to objectively sort through the facts and make a decision that is in the best interest of justice. That is what we intend to do.”
Nevils’ decision came a little more than a week after the Tribune published the first full account of the case amid fears expressed by the victim’s family and civil rights groups that the incident would be covered up in a town with a florid history of backroom dealings and political corruption.
Nevils’ predecessor as district attorney committed suicide after he came under suspicion for skimming $200,000 from his office accounts and extorting bribes from criminal suspects. The former police chief, who was Nugent’s father, also killed himself, after losing a bitterly-contested election campaign marred by fraud allegations. The current police chief is a convicted drug offender who was pardoned by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for corruption while in office.
In his own written report of the Pikes’ incident, Nugent acknowledged that he had subdued and handcuffed Pikes after a foot chase and that Pikes had not struggled or resisted arrest. Instead, Nugent wrote, he began Tasering Pikes after the suspect did not respond quickly enough to Nugent’s order to stand up and walk to a waiting police car.
Witnesses reported that Pikes had pleaded with Nugent and two other arresting officers to stop Tasering him.
Nugent’s attorney has said the former officer acted according to police procedures. But the Winnfield Police Department’s written Taser policy states that the device should only be used “where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject.”
Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, determined after investigating the death that Nugent administered a total of nine 50,000-volt Taser shocks to Pikes over a 14-minute period-and that the last two jolts were delivered after Pikes had lost consciousness.
Nevils would not reveal the range of possible charges he will ask the grand jury to consider against Nugent.
hwitt@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
Friends of Justice 
If drugs were legalized this kid would not have died. There would be no reason for him to get arrested in the first place. According to The Lancet alcohol & tobacco & prescription meds kill more people than all illegal drugs combined.
The police are simply using tasers as torture devices.
This is a complete travesty. It is deplorable that this has not been on the major networks. I grow tired of what to put on the barbeque or other trivial information. This is why I now watch the BBC America news. We are inundated with propaganda from the major networks.
There is nothing that justifies this officers actions.