Unhappy holidays

Taking instead of giving: A few robberies plagued the neighborhood between Christmas and New Year's, including one a block from my house just a few hours after my sons and their families departed:

• Christmas night (12.25.09) 10:35 p.m.: 3 white men and 2 white women walking in the 1200 block of Bourbon Street (near Barracks Street) were robbed by a lone black gunman who pulled a pistol and demanded their money. He got it and fled on foot up Barracks toward N. Rampart Street.

The robber was described as 35 years old, 5'10" tall, with a medium build, short hair and dark complexion, wearing a black sweater and black pants.

• Saturday (12.26.09) 1:10 a.m.: A white woman walking in the 600 block of Bourbon Street (between St. Peter and Toulouse streets) while gabbing on her cellphone had it yanked away from her by a black guy.

The thief was described as 20 to 25 years old, 5'11" tall, weighing 155 pounds, wearing a yellow jacket and dark pants.

• Saturday (12.26.09) 2:35 a.m.: A black woman walking in the 800 block of Iberville Street (between Bourbon and Dauphine streets) when she was attacked by a white man who struck her and grabbed her purse.

He is described as 25 to 30 years old, 5'10" tall, weighing 165 pounds, wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans.

• Sunday (12.27.09) 10:58 p.m.: A white man walking in the 100 block of Carondelet Street (just across Canal Street from Bourbon Street) was robbed by 2 black dudes who pushed him to the ground and swiped his stuff from his pockets.

The 2 assailants were described as in their early 20's, one 5'5" tall, with a thin build, wearing a black knit cap, the other 5'10" tall, with a thin build and short hair.

• New Year's Day (1.1.10) 1:15 a.m.: A black woman walking in the 800 block of St. Louis Street (between Bourbon and Dauphine streets) got into an argument with a black guy she didn't know. He pulled a pistol and pointed it at her without firing, fleeing the scene instead on foot.

Police later arrested Alvarez Porter, 29, and charged him with aggravated assault and illegally carrying a weapon. He managed to post $30,000 bond a couple of days later to get out of OPP.

• New Year's Day (1.1.10) 2:39 p.m.: A white guy walking near Bourbon and St. Ann streets was knocked to the ground by a black drunk who grabbed the wallet from the victim's pocket.
  

Detectives determined their suspect was Larry Desvignes, 39, and arrested him a short time later on charges of public drunkenness, simple battery, and simple robbery. He is in OPP on a $20,000 bond.

• Sunday (1.3.10) 5:02 a.m.: A white man walking near Chartres and St. Ann street was grabbed by 2 white thugs who stole the wallet from his pocket. They hopped into a car which sped down Chartres toward Esplanade Avenue.

One of the robbers was described as 19 to 22 years old, 6' tall, weighing 180 pounds, with short brown hair, wearing a dark hoodie and blue jeans; the other was 28 to 30 years old, 5'6" to 5'9" tall, with a medium build, wearing a brown leather jacket.

Holiday spirits to blame?: Unless you were out hooting and hollering on New Year's Eve and Day, you probably avoided these scenes:

• New Year's Eve (12.31.09) 12:48 a.m.: A 21-year-old white guy from Florida was having just too good of a time at the Old Opera House, 601 Bourbon St., when the bouncer asked him to leave the bar. He tried to re-enter the bar several times and was escorted out. He then allegedly pulled a knife and lunged at the bouncer. The bouncer (they call them that for a reason) managed to subdue the dude until police arrived.

They arrested Corey Massingill and charged him with aggravated assault. He posted $10,000 bond and got out of OPP before we could get his mugshot.

• New Year's Eve (12.31.09) 12:48 a.m.: About 2 blocks away at the exact same time (according to police reports), a black guy tried to make off with a white woman's wallet at the Bourbon Street Blues Company, 441 Bourbon St. She resisted and he fled the scene.

The police apprehended Darrell Smith, 45, and charged him with attempted pursesnatching and 2 counts of theft under $300. He is in OPP on $70,000 bond.

• New Year's Day (1.1.10) 11:20 a.m.: A black hood robbed Melvin's Bar, 2112 St. Claude Ave., pulling a pistol and demanding the cash from the video poker machines, the cash register and the 45-year-old bartender's pockets before fleeing on foot.

The robber is described as 30 to 35 years old, 5'9" tall, weighing 150 pounds, wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans.

BOLO: Be On the LookOut for these creeps wanted for earlier crimes. 8th District detectives have identified them as suspects in a couple of recent cases:

• Antonio Morris, 17, a black boy, 5'11" tall, weighing 160 pounds, with a thin build, last seen wearing a dark hoodie and dark jeans.

He is accused of robbing a white woman of her cellphone in the 500 block of Gov. Nicholls Street on 12.12.09 around 11:28 p.m. He allegedly grabbed the phone and then fled to Decatur Street where he escaped in a black 4-door sedan with tinted windows.

The victim positively identified him in a photo line-up and detectives issued a warrant for his arrest 12.24.09 on a simple robbery charge.

• Freddie Greenup, 36, a well-known drug dealer who sometimes goes by the name of David Green. He's black, 6'2" tall, weighing 175 pounds, with a thin build, medium complexion and shoulder length dreadlocks, last seen wearing a white dress shirt and gray pants.

He's accused of striking a white guy with a pool cue in The R Bar, 1431 Royal St., after an argument around 11:52 p.m. on 12.13.09. After an investigation and the victim identifying the suspect from a photo line-up, detectives issued an arrest warrant for Greenup on 12.30.09, charging him with aggravated battery.

He has upward of 2 dozen arrests going back to when he was 17 in 1990, mostly on drug-related charges; his most recent arrest was last October for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Parking garage shooter nabbed: A 17-year-old punk, Johann Burton, was arrested yesterday (1.5.10) at his home in Gentilly and charged with armed robbery and attempted murder in the attack on a 26-year-old Gretna man 12.9.09 in the parking garage across from the reincarnated Roosevelt Hotel.

8th District Det. Sean McElrath worked with the victim to develop a composite image of his assailant. Burton's mugshot popped up in the files after he was arrested last year when he was still 16 and charged along with 3 of his buddies with 3 counts of armed robbery.

Burton more or less managed to beat the rap when Criminal Court Judge Darryl Derbigny allowed him to plead guilty to reduced charges of simple robbery and then gave Burton a suspended 4-year sentence, which allowed him to walk free.

This time Burton is locked up in OPP on $350,000 bond set by Magistrate Harry Cantrell. Maybe it'll give him time to come up with the name of his accomplice and get that dirtbag off the streets too.

Malta's killer sentenced: As expected, Mark Anthony Ott, 32, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday (1.4.10) after he was convicted in December for the brutal second-degree murder of Robin Malta, a French Quarter hair salon owner.

After impact statements were read by 3 members of Malta's family, Criminal Court Judge Camille Buras denied a defense motion for a new trial and imposed the mandatory sentence. She appointed the Louisiana Appellate Project to handle his appeal.

The case was notable in that District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro prosecuted it himself, obtaining the conviction based solely on circumstantial evidence. Ott was accused of savagely beating Malta, 43, to death in his Port Street home in the Fauberg Marigny in 2007.

Murder rate down?: Don't believe it. Big Chief Warren Riley would have you believe crime is down in New Orleans because the city had 6 fewer murders in 2009 than the year before. (Nevertheless, New Orleans still leads the nation in the number of murders per capita--one of Riley's favorite fudge factors--while the rest of the country was showing substantial declines.)

But the real problem is the reliability of Riley's figures. If you go to the NOPD crime maps (which Riley touted as the best in the nation a year or so ago--they're not) and the discrepancies are magnified. There is no way to tell from them just how many crimes there have been. Riley even expunged from the map the highly-publicized murder of Wendy Byrne in the French Quarter just shy of a year ago.

I'm waiting for the day the FBI finds out Riley's been lying to them. It sounds like federal indictment time. Then Riley will know what he's going to be doing in his retirement.

Speak up, mayor wannabees: From mayoral candidates who've mentioned it at all, they've all thrown out that old canard: "We'll conduct a nationwide search for the best police chief." That's all well and good, fellas (and one lady), but you're going to need a police chief on day one. Who will that be? How well do you know the personnel in the NOPD that you can pick from among them?

Only Mitch Landrieu seems to have a clue who he'd choose. When he ran against Ray Nagin in 2006, he reportedly favored Capt. Harry Mendoza, then head of the NOPD's traffic division. Whether that's still his choice today is unknown, but it does show Landrieu knows some of the personnel in the NOPD. That's a good thing.

When Nagin won, Riley fired Mendoza on trumped up charges to remove the threat. He was later forced by the Civil Service Commission to rehire him; so Riley, true to form, buried Mendoza--as he had so many others--in the bowels of the department.

I'm getting more than a little uneasy about John Georges stances:

• He criticizes Landrieu for seeking other offices before, but Georges himself tried to be governor. When that didn't work out so well, he decided he wanted to be mayor.

• A life-long Republican, he repudiated them by running as an independent for governor and now decides he might have a better chance registered as a Democrat.

• He doesn't seem to know what a mayor does; he keeps saying he'll improve the schools and reopen Charity Hospital--neither of which are in the realm of the mayor's office.

• He touts himself as a grocery salesman, but his deep involvement as a purveyor of tobacco and gambling doesn't sound like a law-and-order candidate to me. Like my Daddy use to say: "You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas."

• Then he goes and buys Galatoire's in a devious deal so he'll have a New Orleans-based business to go with all his other businesses which are Metairie-centric. (Hope this doesn't get me 86'd from my favorite restaurant.)

For your own sake, with the mayoral election a scant month from today, make sure you ask each candidate who they're going to pick for police chief. If they don't know, they don't care enough. It's too important to suffer through what we have for the last 8 years.

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As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome at NOcrimeline@gmail.com

Thom Kahler