- Former Mayor and Future Felon Ray Nagin. Photo c/o huffingtonpost.com
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, 57, who took the national stage during the Katrina disaster in 2005, was found guilty of twenty counts of corruption, as well as taking bribes and kickbacks from local business interests.
CNN described the trial as a show, that the writing was on the wall.
“During the two-week trial, prosecutors brought to the stand a string of businessmen who had already pleaded guilty to bribing Nagin. His defense did little to challenge their stories, [Pat] Fanning, ]a veteran New Orleans lawyer] said.
“It was too painful actually to watch. They just swamped him,” he said. And when Nagin took the stand in his own defense, “He did a belly flop,” often answering questions on cross-examination by saying he couldn’t recall who paid for a trip or perk.
“He just looked terrible,” Fanning said.
The earliest of the charges date from before Katrina, which struck when Nagin had been in office for about three years. The hurricane flooded more than three-fourths of low-lying New Orleans and left more than 1,800 dead across the region — most of them in Louisiana.”
More at CNN.
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