Katrina police officer getting a retrial

Warren initially given manslaughter for killing man

NEWORLEANS— Three years after his manslaughter conviction, a former New Orleans police officer is getting a second chance to convince a jury that he was justified in fatally shooting a man outside a strip mall during Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic af- termath.

David Warren, whose retrial is scheduled to start Monday, was one of 20 officers charged in a series of federal investigations of alleged police misconduct in New Orleans. His December 2010 conviction was touted as a major milestone in the Justice Department’s ambitious efforts to clean up the city’s troubled po- lice department.

Warren was one of the first to be tried. He will also be the first of several officers to get a retrial as federal prosecutors — dogged by misconduct allegations of their own — try to salvage cases that many viewed as catalysts for healing the city’s post-Katrina wounds.

Five of the 20 officers pleaded guilty and are serving prison sentences. Of the others, three were acquitted while seven had their convictions overturned and await retrials. Four had their convictions upheld. A prosecutor’s ill-advised remark led to a mistrial for another officer.

The same jury that convicted Warren of fatally shooting 31year-old Henry Glover also convicted another officer, Gregory McRae, of burning Glover’s body in a car after a good Samar- itan drove the dying man to a makeshift police headquarters. A third former officer, Travis McCabe, was convicted of writing a false report on the shooting.

Warren was serving nearly 26 years in prison when a threejudge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he should have been tried separately from four other officers charged with participating in a cover-up to make Glover’s shooting appear justified.