New Orleans fires two police officers
New Orleans Two officers were fired Wednesday for a beating in the French Quarter shortly after Hurricane Katrina that was photographed and videotaped by the Associated Press. A third officer was suspended.
A union official vowed to fight the firings of officers Robert Evangelist and Lance Schilling for their role in the beating of 64-year-old Robert Davis. Officer Stuart Smith was suspended for 120 days.
The officers’ lawyer said the department rushed the firings. Ordinarily, said attorney Frank DeSalvo, a dismissal occurs only after an officer has been tried on criminal charges.
The confrontation renewed longstanding allegations of racism, brutality and corruption in the New Orleans Police Deparment. The three officers are white, and Davis is black. Davis said he does not believe race was an issue in the beating.
Evangelist and Schilling were accused of battery against Davis. Smith was accused of battery against a reporter. All three officers had been suspended without pay since the incident. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges and face trial Jan. 11.
Possible Clinton foe pulls out of race
Albany, N.Y. After weeks of pressure from her own party to drop out, Republican Jeanine Pirro abandoned her struggling campaign to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and announced Wednesday that she will run for New York attorney general instead.
“I have decided that my law enforcement background better qualifies me for a race for New York state attorney general than a race for the United States Senate,” Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, said in a statement.
With her campaign against Clinton in trouble, Pirro had been under strong pressure from top state GOP leaders to make the switch.
The move leaves Republicans with two active candidates for the Senate nomination: former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, who is not well known statewide, and an even less well known tax attorney from the Catskills region, William Brenner.
Some supporters expect New York City lawyer Edward Cox, a son-in-law of President Nixon, to consider re-entering the Senate race. Cox withdrew in October after Republican Gov. George Pataki endorsed Pirro.
Miami rape suspect escapes from jail
Miami A man accused of raping seven girls and women in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood escaped from jail by crawling through a ceiling vent and then climbing down from the roof using tied-together bed sheets, police said.
Police searched neighborhoods, airports, rail stations and ports for Reynaldo E. Rapalo, 34, who broke out of a Miami-Dade County jail Tuesday night, police said. A man who tried to escape with him was caught after he jumped and broke his legs.
“We fully realize he represents the worst kind of threat possible to the streets of Miami,” Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said. “There will be no stone unturned.”
Rapalo was awaiting trial after being arrested in 2003. He was charged with raping seven people, ages 11 to 79, and attempting to attack four others. If convicted, he could get life in prison.
The rapes kept Little Havana on edge for a year. On Wednesday afternoon, stores there had taped wanted posters to their front doors.