Robbers hit in early a.m.: A series of robberies over the weekend--which don't seem to be related--illustrate the need for extra caution in the wee hours:
- Friday (6.5.09), 1:30 a.m.: A white man walking near St. Louis and Burgundy streets was robbed by 2 black dudes. One grabbed him while the other cleaned out his pockets. Either they didn't get much or the victim just didn't give a damn about his friends and neighbors who might wind up victims of this duo--he didn't report it to police until 12 hours later.
Not much chance the cops were going to catch up with these guys, only of one of whom the victim could give a description of. He was said to be 20 to 26 years old, 6'1" tall, weighing 170 pounds, medium build, with a dark complexion and shoulder-length dreadlocks, wearing a white shirt.
- Sunday (6.7.09), 3:15 a.m.: 2 white guys walking near Bourbon and Orleans streets were offered a ride by 2 black dudes. After they got in the car, the black fellas demanded their money and began to beat on them. After they surrendered their worldly goods, they were let out of the car, which sped away.
The 2 victims (let's call them Dumb and Dumber, for obvious reasons) described their assailants as both 20 to 25 years old with short hair, one 6' tall, the other 5'9" tall. They gave no description of the vehicle. Duh?
- Monday (6.8.09), 12:35 a.m.: A white woman walking near St. Philip and Dauphine streets, was robbed by 2 black chicks who came up and struck the victim while grabbing her purse from her hands.
The victim described the girls as in their early 20's, about 5' tall, one with a medium complexion, long dreadlocks and wearing a maroon shirt, the other wearing a yellow dress.
- Thursday (6.4.09): Detectives issued an arrest warrant for Deshawn Freeman, 27, for aggravated battery after he allegedly attacked a black woman with a lamp in her hotel room in the 300 block of O'Keefe Avenue. The victim told police she was acquainted with her attacker, but didn't know his full name.
She later picked him out of a photographic line-up and positively identified him. Freeman, who is 6' tall and weighs 175 pounds, has been on the run from the law for the past year after he failed to show up for a court case in which he was charged with possession of cocaine.
- Friday (6.5.09): Detectives arrested Amora Collins, 18, and charged her with ro
bbing a white guy of his wallet on 5.15.09 who was at the Chase Bank ATM at Bienville and Royal streets around 10 p.m.
She was described as 5'2" tall and weighing 110 pounds. The victim positively identified her from a photographic line-up. She's sitting in OPP in lieu of $35,000 bond.
Hey, what happened?: Romalice Tate, 20, who's spent the last year and a h
alf of his life in OPP after being charged with armed robbery, is going to spend some more time in prison. He was sentenced Monday (6.8.09) by Judge Laurie White to 5 years on each of 2 counts of attempted armed robbery, but those sentences will run concurrently and he'll get credit for the time already served.
Tate might have felt kind of snookered in the deal. He pled guilty to the 2 charges last January after they were reduced to "attempted" from the real thing. But last month, his alleged accomplice, Renard Prevost, 21, took his chances with a jury on 2 charges of armed robbery with a firearm. The jury found him not guilty.
The charges against Tate and Prevost stem from the robbery 1.8.08 of an Ohio couple walking in the 800 block of Commerce Street (near Julia Street) around midnight when 2 black thugs came upon them. One of the assailants struck the man in the head several times with a black semi-automatic pistol while demanding his money. The other robber stuck a small silver and black colored pistol in the woman's side and demanded her property. The thieves made off with the man's wallet and cellphone and the woman's purse.
Still in a heap of trouble: John L. Clowney, 50, who was acquitted by a jury of
attempted 1st-degree robbery but was found guilty of aggravated battery, was sentenced 5.29.09 by Judge Frank Marullo Jr. to 10 years in prison on that charge.That must have seemed rather harsh to some, because defense attorney Keith Hurtt immediately filed for a reconsideration of the sentence. Judge Marullo allowed the Louisiana Appellate Project to represent Clowney on his appeal. Clowney's going to need all the help he can get; he faces a multiple-bill hearing in July which could send him away for a lot longer if he's found to be a career criminal.
Clowney was arrested 11.14.08 after an attack 2 days earlier on a 55-year-old man who was going into his house at 727 Burgundy St. According to the police, the attacker was armed with a boxcutter and tried to rob the man. A man in the house came to the victim's aid and was stabbed in the neck, but wrested the knife away from the attacker and slashed the attacker several times in the face, severely enough to hospitalize the perpetrator.
Lucks out, more or less: Donovan R. Taplette--or Rashawn Taplett, as he sometimes
called himself--was first charged with armed robbery, but the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute that. Then the charge was reduced to 1st-degree robbery, apparently a question of whether or not he was armed. But when things finally wrapped up in court 6.1.09, Taplette was allowed to plead guilty to theft over $500. 8th District detectives arrested Taplette, 18, on 1.5.09 after he allegedly carjacked a Hispanic guy who was sitting in his car on St. Louis Street near Bourbon Street around 6 a.m. on 12.21.08.
Judge Karen Herman sentenced Taplette to 5 years in prison--and was emphatic that all his meds go with him and be given to him.
Oops: We erred in reporting last Friday (6.5.09) that a levy funding the French Quarter-Marigny Historic Area Management District (you know, those guys who say they're going to make the Quarter safer) would be crammed down residents' throats without a vote of the people.
The bill (SB256 which state Sen. Edwin Murray quietly slipped past his colleagues last week) has to clear the state House before there's a public vote to try to cram it down residents' throats.
The bill is touted as a measure to promote "public safety, security, and crime prevention." No one disputes the need to make the Quarter safer, but the bill's proposal to add a force of rent-a-cops is an invitation for the NOPD to slough off its mandated duty to protect our neighborhoods.
And the $185 fee (what's magic about that number and where'd it come from?) to be levied for that purpose is greater than a property assessed at $200,000 already pays in taxes for police and fire protection.
Does that mean if this new levy passes we'll have twice as many cops on the streets of the Quarter? Highly unlikely.
The group behind all this is studded with businessmen--rather than residents--and that alone portends a warning as to who's going to get stuck with the bigger big.
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As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome at NOcrimeline@gmail.comThom Kahler
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