Trial opens for last officer in Katrina shootings


January 23, 2012 at 10:18a.m.

Trial opens for last officer in Katrina shootings

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jury selection is under way in the trial of a retired New Orleans police sergeant charged with helping cover up deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

The trial starting Monday for Gerard Dugue is expected to last two weeks.

Dugue allegedly submitted a false report to make it appear police were justified in shooting six people, killing two less than a week after the 2005 storm.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ordered separate trials for Dugue and five other current or former officers who were convicted in August of civil rights violations stemming from the shootings.

Dugue isn’t charged in the shooting. He didn’t get involved in the case until several weeks later, when the department assigned him to help another sergeant investigate.