New Orleans D.A. Shaking Up Office

New Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie J. Jordan, right, and Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti hold a news conference in Jordan's office in New Orleans, Friday, July 13, 2007. Jordan discussed recent personnel changes in his office. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) (Bill Haber - AP)

NEW ORLEANS -- Criticized after dropping charges against suspects in two high-profile murder cases, the district attorney said Friday that a new unit would take over all cases previously handled by the homicide unit.

The Violent Crimes Unit was created in March with city and federal money and offers up to $80,000 a year for experienced attorneys in an office where most of the staff is inexperienced.

"The prosecutors in that unit have more experience than any other attorneys in our office, and at this point in time have a 92 percent conviction rate," District Attorney Eddie Jordan said.

Five of its seven attorneys had worked under former District Attorney Harry Connick, and four of them were re-hired this year for the new unit. Its leader, Assistant District Attorney Bobby Freeman, returned in 2004, the year after Jordan took office.

Jordan also said that, at the suggestion of the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, he is asking the National District Attorneys Association to evaluate his office.

"The association evaluates district attorney offices nationwide. That places that association in an excellent position to conduct an objective evaluation of my office," he said.

State Attorney General Charles Foti said that would take the place of his own plan to review up to 10 years of homicide and violent crime cases handled by the New Orleans district attorney's office in hopes of improving prosecutions and stemming the city's spiraling murder rate.

In the immediate future, Jordan said, he, Foti and others will work together "on an immediate plan of action to work on violent crimes."

Foti said, "Everybody's hit the ground running and there will be lots of changes in the very near future."

Jordan's announcement came a day after a City Council member said he should resign following Tuesday's dismissal of charges in last summer's shooting deaths of five teenagers and last month's dismissal of charges in the killing of musician Dinerral Shavers.

Also Friday, a majority of the City Council asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to review the performance of Jordan's office.

"The current crime situation in New Orleans is dire and the apparent ineffectiveness of (Jordan's) office needs immediate attention at all levels," City Council president Arnie Fielkow wrote in a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr.

Fielkow encouraged the court to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a broader examination of Jordan's office.

On Tuesday, Jordan's office dropped charges against a suspect in the June 2006 murder of five teens, described by police as the city's worst mass killing in a decade. Prosecutors said a key, but uncooperative, witness had disappeared.

On Wednesday, the witness was at a police news conference saying she was willing to testify.