Author Archives: Kevin McGill

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was convicted Wednesday on charges that he accepted bribes, free trips and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work while he was in office, including right after Hurricane Katrina. The federal jury found Nagin guilty of […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In sharp exchanges Thursday with a prosecutor in his corruption trial, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin flatly denied seeking $60,000 from a contractor who had just been turned down for city business. “He lied,” the ex-mayor said of key prosecution witness Rodney Williams, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Coman questioned […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former investment banker serving a 14-year prison sentence for a New Jersey fraud scheme testified Monday that he helped arrange and disguise a $50,000 bribe to former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, Michael McGrath told jurors in Nagin’s corruption trial that the bribe in […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former technology chief for the city of New Orleans says ex-Mayor Ray Nagin took expensive vacations to Hawaii and Jamaica paid for by a major city vendor, Mark St. Pierre, who also helped funnel illegal contributions to Nagin’s 2006 re-election campaign. Greg Meffert testified Friday in Nagin’s federal corruption trial […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Days after bursts of gunfire brought a chaotic and bloody end to a Mother’s Day neighborhood parade in New Orleans, news of now seven arrests gave an organizer of the traditional event reason to celebrate again. “I’m just ecstatic,” Edward Buckner, president of the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have arrested the suspect wanted in a Mother’s Day parade shooting that wounded 19 people in New Orleans, police said. Akein Scott, 19, was arrested Wednesday night in the Little Woods section of eastern New Orleans, police department spokeswoman Remi Braden said. She said no additional details were available and […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A second suspect has been arrested in the shooting that injured 20 people at a parade on Mother’s Day, police said Thursday afternoon. Shawn Scott, 24, was arrested Thursday, police Chief Ronal Serpas said. He is the brother of 19-year-old Akein Scott, who was arrested Wednesday night in the shooting. Both […]