NEW ORLEANS (AP) - An Orleans Parish man who served on a jury in August that acquitted a suspect on drug and public intimidation charges is facing allegations that he took a bribe from the defendant and later lied to a state grand jury.
Forty-four-year-old Julius Ford pleaded not guilty Thursday to public bribery and perjury.
Ford told The New Orleans Advocate (https://bit.ly/1q7aHgj) that the allegations are “a bunch of foolishness.”
The allegations filed last month mark the latest turn in the complicated criminal case against Casey Warren. Warren, 36, was arrested after searches in 2011 of his car and home allegedly turned up cocaine and a handgun. Warren also was accused of intimidating officer Raymond Veit, now retired, whom he accused of stealing home surveillance equipment that would have proven police were lying.
Warren remains jailed. The jury that acquitted him on the cocaine and public intimidation charge deadlocked on a weapons charge.
Ford is accused of accepting U.S. currency from Casey Warren and then lying when he appeared before the grand jury on Sept. 19, a month after the trial.
Christopher Bowman, a spokesman for District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office, declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing open cases.
In the bill of information charging Ford, prosecutors also recharged Casey Warren with the weapons count, along with two drug crimes, jury tampering and a charge of public bribery for allegedly paying off Ford.
Warren’s brother, Sean Warren, 40, faces allegations of jury tampering and obstruction of justice from charges filed by Cannizzaro’s office in October. His attorney, Arthur “Buddy” Lemann III, declined to comment on the case.
Veit, the NOPD officer, retired from the force in January while under investigation, according to the city. The District Attorney’s Office in 2012 referred a perjury complaint about Veit to the FBI after security camera footage obtained by defense attorneys in another drug case directly contradicted his sworn testimony. He was relegated to desk duty when that investigation began, then was suspended following his arrest in the summer in Jefferson Parish on simple assault.
The Warren brothers also have a lawsuit pending against law enforcement officials in an unrelated case.
Two weeks after Casey Warren’s trial, the Warren brothers filed a federal lawsuit against Jefferson Parish deputies alleging a civil rights violation for the use of stun guns against them during a 2012 traffic stop. That case remains pending.
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Information from: The New Orleans Advocate, https://www.neworleansadvocate.com
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