New Orleans police officers Melvin Williams and Matthew Dean Moore were convicted on all counts by a federal jury this morning in the July 2005 beating death of Treme handyman Raymond Robair.
Patrice Leflore, left, niece of Raymond Robair, wipes away tears with other family members after a New Orleans jury found two police officers guilty in charges arising from his death in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon immediately revoked bond for both men and ordered them taken into the custody of federal marshals.
Williams faces a maximum of life in prison. Moore faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. Sentencing has been set for July 14.
Both officers remained stoic as the verdicts were read, while members of Robair's family cried.
Lawyer Frank DeSalvo, who represented Williams, sat in the courtroom after the verdicts were delivered, holding his head in his hands.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Williams kicked Robair and beat him with a baton, lacerating his spleen and eventually causing him to die of internal bleeding.
They said Williams and Moore, his rookie partner, Moore, dropped Robair off at Charity Hospital but did not alert medical staffers there about the extent of his injuries. Moore and Williams were both charged with obstruction of justice, while Moore is also charged with lying to an FBI agent.
Raymond Robair
The jury agreed with the government's account: Williams was found guilty of violating Robair's civil rights by beating him, and also of causing his death. Both Moore and Williams were convicted on the obstruction charge as well -- which revolved around an allegedly false police report -- and Moore was found guilty of lying to the FBI.
Lawyers for the two men had argued there was no beating, and that Robair must have received his injuries before the officers encountered him on Dumaine Street. They also blamed the doctors at Charity Hospital for not properly diagnosing Robair's injuries.
The Robair case was the second major federal-civil rights probe into alleged misdeeds by NOPD officers to go to trial recently. In December, a jury convicted three of five current or former officers who were on trial for various roles in the death of Henry Glover in the days after Hurricane Katrina and a subsequent coverup.
Two more major federal trials involving NOPD are still on tap: Six officers face charges in the post-Katrina shootings on the Danziger Bridge, in which two civilians were killed and five were badly wounded. Five officers have pleaded guilty to various roles in that case.
And two officers who were involved in a post-Katrina shooting outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center face charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.
New Orleans police officers Melvin Williams, left, and Dean Moore are charged in the 2005 beating death of Raymond Robair.
Outside the courtroom, Marie Robair, Raymond Robair's mother, told reporters: "It was wonderful for me to see it. My son can rest in peace."
Several members of Robair's family expressed gratitude toward federal investigators and the U.S. Department of Justice, saying that they had delivered on a promise to see the case through.
But Patrice Leflore, a niece of Raymond Robair, said the resolution of the case did not make her feel more confident in the NOPD, saying: "I don't believe the NOPD is capable of policing themselves."
Leflore said she's glad federal authorities have taken an interest in the Robair case and others, saying that gives her more faith that police misconduct is being scrutinized.