Indicted lawyer Makes Serious Allegations Against Adams & Reese

The detailed allegations that an indicted lawyer has made against the law firm Adams & Reese should not be ignored.

In a sensational legal filing, a former partner at Adams and Reese who is awaiting trial on charges that he stole $30 million from the firm claims that the firm has had a hand in scandals ranging from the WorldCom stock fraud to the abuse of Louisiana film tax credits.

The lawsuit also claims the New Orleans firm has made a practice of hiring former public officials, including former Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, and improperly using them to land clients with whom they had dealt as public officials. Coulon and Morial deny the claim.

It would be criminal if a thorough investigation of these allegations were not undertaken. The people of New Orleans would lose faith in the justice system if every effort was not made to uncover the truth.

Shared Blame

Admit mistakes:

A series of mechanical breakdowns and a critical error by the bridge operator led to New Orleans police officer Tommie Felix's fatal plunge off an improperly opened Claiborne Avenue drawbridge, according to a preliminary investigation by the state transportation department.

But this is scary:

Two other bridges in Louisiana, both in the New Orleans area, also were found in the past week to have broken secondary barriers, state officials acknowledged at a Tuesday briefing detailing the state's findings. The state plans to repair those barricades at the Chef Pass bridge on U.S. 90 and the Judge Perez Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Belle Chasse.

Poor, Poor, Dollar Bill Jefferson

Another blow to Dollar Bill Jefferson defense stall tactics--what will he do next?

A federal judge has rejected arguments by attorneys for Rep. William Jefferson seeking dismissal of charges that the New Orleans Democrat solicited and received bribes to promote business projects in Western Africa.

Jefferson's lawyers had argued that the government did not allege that Jefferson had performed any "official acts" related to the alleged bribes -- making the accusations null and void.

But U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bribery charges can be brought even if the acts don't fit into the "responsibilities explicitly assigned by law."

It's time for him to take his punishment like a man and stop trying to weasel out of things.