Latest / FBI Files / He Won a Police Medal in 1993. In 1994, He Had a Witness Killed.

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He Won a Police Medal in 1993. In 1994, He Had a Witness Killed. · FBI Files

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So you got what I need?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: On the streets of New Orleans, drug money bought the
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: city's cups. Officers became the strong arm of drug lords,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: brutalizing anyone who dared speak up.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Jim!
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Jim!
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Help!
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: With police tainted by belief, undercover agents would have to
• 0:27
  Speaker 5: put their lives on the line to bring down the
• 0:30
  Speaker 5: corrupt officers who hid behind the shattered sheep.
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: In a city awash in narcotics, the drug lords have
• 1:10
  Speaker 6: all the power, even over the police. Corruption in New
• 1:14
  Speaker 6: Orleans grew like cancer, eating away at public safety and
• 1:18
  Speaker 6: threatening to destroy the city. Lured by easy wealth, crooked
• 1:22
  Speaker 6: cops began breaking the laws they were sworn to uphold.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:30
  Speaker 6: When it became clear that the police could no longer
• 1:32
  Speaker 6: police themselves, the FBI had to get involved. It was
• 1:37
  Speaker 6: a case where the line between friends and enemies became
• 1:40
  Speaker 6: dangerously blurred.
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: New Orleans, 1993. Tourists packed the city looking for a
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: good time, not all of it legal. Cocaine was in
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: demand and the dealers cashed in. It was a violent business.
• 2:04
  Speaker 7: For protection, the.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: Drug lords turned to those whose duty was to serve
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: and protect. The cops. Officers lined their pockets while enforcing
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: the will of the dealers. They controlled turf-like thugs, terrorizing
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: innocent civilians. Agent Stan Hatton of the FBI's Public Corruption
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Unit in New Orleans was aware of the growing problem.
• 2:33
  Speaker 8: Our intelligence told us that there was a great variety
• 2:36
  Speaker 8: of corruption taking place among many different officers on the department. However,
• 2:42
  Speaker 8: the one thing that seemed to be the most pervasive
• 2:45
  Speaker 8: was that officers were out there working with drug dealers
• 2:47
  Speaker 8: on the street, were protecting drug dealers on the street,
• 2:50
  Speaker 8: and were stealing money and drugs from drug dealers on
• 2:53
  Speaker 8: the street.
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: One such drug dealer was Terry Adams, known on the
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: streets as Scaboo. He was a small-time operator who was
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: being extorted by Officer Sammy Williams.
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: So you got what I need?
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: Come on now, give me what I need. But this time,
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: the protection money Scabu paid Williams wasn't enough. On Christmas Eve,
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: the officer demanded that Scabu pay him $ 10, 000 cash by
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: 6 p.m. If Scabu failed to show, Williams threatened to
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: beat him and guaranteed him 20 years to life. That evening,
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: At 5 p.m., Special Agent Stan Haddon was finishing up
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: some last-minute work. About to go home, he took one
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: last call. It was Scaboo. His time was running out.
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: He told Haddon that he was being blackmailed, but didn't
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: have the $ 10, 000 the corrupt cop was demanding in less
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: than an hour.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: What did the name of the officer say?
• 4:06
  Speaker 8: When Scaboo contacted me, we realized that that was our
• 4:08
  Speaker 8: best chance to do something about police corruption.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: And I have.
• 4:13
  Speaker 8: Immediately arranged to meet him and debrief him in person.
• 4:16
  Speaker 8: There was no way we could get everything together by
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: 6 o'clock. By the time I met with him, it
• 4:20
  Speaker 8: was 30 minutes before the deadline.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: Haddon and his partner quickly hashed out a plan. Scabu
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: would meet the officer as arranged, but he'd be wearing
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: an FBI wire. The agents couldn't arrange $ 10, 000 on such
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: short notice. Skabu would have to convince the cop to
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: accept smaller payments over several meetings.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, that could be rough.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Well, you know that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 9: You've worked with him.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have.
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: Assured by Haddon that he would be under constant surveillance,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: Skabu took his position. Officer Sammy Williams was still on
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: duty when he arrived with a prisoner cuffed in the
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: back seat of his cruiser. Williams drove Scabu to a
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: deserted spot behind a seafood market. He ordered him to
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: throw the $ 10, 000 into the trunk. Scabu told Williams he
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: only had $ 3, 000 now, but would pay the rest later.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: If the cop arrested Scabu, he'd never get his money back.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: Agents hoped Williams would agree to meet him again for
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: more of the money. He did, and the FBI had
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: it all on tape. Hadden believed this one incident could
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: lay the groundwork for exposing more corruption in the New
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: Orleans Police Department.
• 6:12
  Speaker 8: Our main objective was to try and create a strategy
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: that would enable us to prosecute as many bad officers
• 6:17
  Speaker 8: as we possibly could.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: In the days that followed, Agents, along with prosecutors from
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: the United States Attorney's Office, began to plan their operation,
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: codenamed Shattered Shield.
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: Assistant U.S.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: Attorney Al Winters would advise agents every step of the
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: way on what would be needed to convict the dirty cops.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: We were involved really from day one. We met with
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the case agents on numerous occasions. and discussed exactly what
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: we were interested in being developed as far as evidence
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in the case.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: As with most corruption cases, the FBI's strongest evidence would
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: likely come from wiretaps. According to Special Agent Karen Jenkins,
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: an FBI wiretap specialist, securing them isn't easy.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: Title III is a court-authorized intercept or wiretap. It's very
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: difficult to get one approved. It's a lengthy process, very time-consuming. Basically,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: we have to have approval by FBI officials to get one,
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: and beyond that we have to have the review and
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: approval by Department of Justice officials. Finally, a federal judge
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: will make the final determination as to whether or not
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: one is authorized.
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: After delivering two more payoffs to Officer Williams, Scabu had
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: won his trust. Now the FBI seized the opportunity to
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: take the operation to the next phase. Scabu would approach
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: Williams with a proposition. The volume of drug business was
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: going to increase, and Scabu would need more cops to
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: protect him. If Williams was interested in higher payoffs, he
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: would need to hire more dirty cops to handle the expansion.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Williams took the bait. Scabu met with him for another
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: recorded payoff in mid-January 1994. But this time, Williams showed
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: up with another officer. He turned out to be Len Davis,
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: Sammy Williams' partner. It wasn't surprising. Davis was known in
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: the projects as a gangster with a badge. Reviewing the
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: tapes hadn't discovered a problem. Both Davis and Williams used
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: the coded language of the drug trade. To make charges stick,
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: the FBI had to record the officers using language that
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: a jury would understand. hadn't pressed Scabu to get Williams
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: and Davis to use words like dope so there'd be
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: no doubt at trial. But when Scabu told the cops
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: the dope is in, Davis suspected something was up.
• 9:36
  Speaker 8: If you're in the police business and somebody starts using
• 9:39
  Speaker 8: words that are that overt and that plain, that immediately
• 9:42
  Speaker 8: makes you suspicious that this person is trying to set
• 9:46
  Speaker 8: you up.
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: Davis shoved Scabu into the car and told Williams to drive.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: The agents would be too conspicuous on the deserted streets
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: if they pursued the cops now. they would put Scabu's
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: life at greater risk. The only thing they could do
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: was sit patiently and listen to the wire. When the
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: car came to a stop, Davis's rage ignited. He yelled
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: that Scaboo was never to say the word dope again.
• 10:27
  Speaker 8: They immediately took him to a deserted location, aggressively searched him.
• 10:31
  Speaker 8: You can hear the Velcro ripping loose on his clothes
• 10:33
  Speaker 8: and stuff. And that was a very tense moment.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Davis insisted that he wouldn't go to jail for careless talking.
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: He and Williams stripped Scaboo looking for a wife. Scaboo
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: was sure he was going to die.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Miraculously, they never found him.
• 10:59
  Speaker 8: Their trust was restored.
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: Skabu continued his protection deal with.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Davis and Williams.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: For the next job, the cops drove him to a
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: store where a drop-off was to take place. Inside, Scabu
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: checked a bag at the counter. He passed the ticket
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: to an agent posing as a buyer, who then retrieved
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: the bag. Williams and Davis watched as each transaction went
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: down They were promised $ 1, 000 for every kilo of cocaine
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: they protected. For them, the deals meant easy money. Davis
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: and Williams met Scabu behind stores and alleyways for the
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: protection payoffs.
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: The FBI recorded every word.
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: Gradually, Operation Shattered Shield was building a solid case against
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: police corruption. The recordings continued into the spring of 1994.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Once agents were sure Davis and Williams were solidly on board,
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: the FBI prepared to expand the investigation. With still more
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: cocaine to go, Williams and Davis would need.
• 12:43
  Speaker 7: To recruit more dirty cops.
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: Federal agents hooked to snare every one. But agents knew
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: the officers may become suspicious of Scabu's rapidly growing drug business.
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: They needed to bring in a big-time dealer, someone whose
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: status as a kingpin would explain the larger shipments.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: You like some?
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Sure. Okay.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: Haddon called on Juan Jackson, an FBI agent trained specifically
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: for working undercover. represent a drug kingpin from up in
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: the East Coast.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: At that time, I was in New York City, and
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: I had been contacted to come down to just be
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: interviewed and go over the actual case. A lot of
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: times they'll be looking for a certain person, height, weight, color,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: or whatever, to infiltrate or get into a certain group.
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: Known as J.J., the agent would act as Scabu's cocaine supplier,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: proposing to use New Orleans as a hub to store
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: and distribute his product nationwide.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I was a high-level drug dealer. I played that role
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: and I had ties where my operation was in both
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Miami and in New York City.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: With the arrival of J.J., Shattered Shield was about to
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: grow from a minor drug business to a booming enterprise.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: Jackson was one of the FBI's best undercover agents. He
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: was smart and experienced. But his life would be in
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: the hands of the informant, Scabu, who had no training.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: Jackson needed to build complete trust with Scabu, or they'd
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: both be dead.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: The informant, because he lives that world, is probably the,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: for me anyway, the most important, because he himself has
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: been there. He's been around these people. If he's not believable,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: it's not going to work. And I think that was
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: the big thing for me down there, was to make
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: sure that we were going to be believable.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: Jackson and Skabu rehearsed their roles again and again, preparing
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: for the real test with Davis and Williams. Jackson, federal
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: agent from the North, and Skabu, a Southern who had
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: dealt drugs all his life, had to forge a common history.
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: Their story would be that they had met in the Army.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: After their stint was up, they'd kept in touch. They
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: hashed and rehashed details of their friendship, habits, fake memories
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: that they'd have to know cold and when to say them.
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: They were dealing with criminals who could run thorough background
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: checks and who were free to use deadly force.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: We knew that whatever we had, we had to keep
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: it simple, but we had to make sure that we
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: remembered certain things. The biggest thing I thought that helped
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: us was my initials, my nickname. So no matter how
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: many times they would ask him, what's his name? He
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: believably said, because he only knew, JJ.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: In April, the FBI was ready to introduce JJ into
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: the operation. He arrived at a hotel carrying what was
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: supposed to be a drug payment of $ 100, 000. For the
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: first time, Williams and Davis caught a glimpse of the
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: big-time dealer. Their perceptions would be critical.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: The first encounter was in the Sheridan Hotel. They were
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: going to stand at a distance and just observe. It
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: was another test to see if they were willing to
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: do what they were going to do. Hey, I don't
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: know how it's going to work. They could arrest me
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: right now and take me off and, you know, I'm down.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: You know, because it was supposed to be drug money.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: So it was a test.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: Skabu told the cops about J.J. and his plan to
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: use New Orleans as a transport hub for his cocaine business.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: Davis and Williams carefully studied JJ's every move. Jackson was
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: creating his character before their eyes. It would become his
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: full-time identity, and it would.
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: Have to hold up under scrutiny.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: Everything depended on what the cops thought they had seen,
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: and if they believed the cash exchange was genuine. the
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: plan worked. The cops were convinced that JJ was the
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: real deal. The FBI was now poised to take Operation
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: Shattered Shield to the next level. By the spring of 1994,
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: the FBI's Operation Shattered Shield, targeting New Orleans police officers
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: involved in the city's drug trade, was in place. Posing
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: as a drug kingpin named JJ, undercover special agent Juan
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: Jackson worked with Scabu, the drug dealer turned FBI informant.
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: Scabu rented a hotel room for JJ to meet officers
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Len Davis and Sammy Williams for the first time.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: What's up, man?
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: What's up?
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: That was showtime. That was a big deal. On any
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: first meeting with any bad guys, You know, a million
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: things are going through your mind. I mean, are you
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: going to be believable? Is anything going to happen that's
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: going to change their attitude? It's either going to work
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: from here, or we're all going to go home.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: Playing the street-savvy drug dealer, J.J. insisted that everyone stripped
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: to establish trust. For this first meeting, Jackson didn't wear
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: a wire. He didn't need to. The room had been
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: thoroughly wired by the FBI for audio and video recording. Then,
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: in a bold gamble, J.J. invited them to search the room.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: Because they were cops, Davis and Williams knew how to
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: find a room wire. But J.J. bet his life on
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: the FBI's technicians. The cops never found the wires.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Go ahead. Keep moving. Okay, cool.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: J.J.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: Was beginning to build trust with the officers. But officers
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: are trained to sniff out deception.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: You've got to think that I'm meeting with two police officers.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Because of the guns, you also always have to remember
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: the threat. You always have to be conscious of the
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: threat and remember exactly where they are and what they're
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: going to do and where the weapons are.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: With the cops convinced for the moment, J.J. began to
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: discuss the proposal approved by case agent Stan Haddon.
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: And he played the role of a big-time drug dealer
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: from New York who was using New Orleans as a
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: transshipment point, simply as a storage point where he could
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: bring dope in, leave it for a while, have it
• 19:47
  Speaker 8: guarded and protected by the officers, and then their have
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: it shipped out to other points unknown.
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: For their role, J.J.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: Promised to pay them $ 5, 000 every day the cops guarded
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: the warehouse. Williams and Davis were enthusiastic about the plan,
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: even offering advice. The cops urged J.J. to hire young
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: drivers give them company uniforms with name tags, and put
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: signs on the sides of the trucks to resemble legitimate companies.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: For the FBI, the meeting was flawless.
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: The meeting went off without a hitch. They bought J.J.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: 's act.
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: They believed him completely, and they also said the magic
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: word cocaine, which got it clearly established on tape that
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: we were talking about the officers protecting a drug operation.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: From that May meeting, the plan moved quickly. The FBI
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: found a warehouse that met their needs, far from public
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: view and rival drug dealers.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: J.J.
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: And Scabu met Davis and Williams for a walkthrough.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: J.J.
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: And Scabu would meet with Len Davis and Sammy Williams
• 21:10
  Speaker 8: at the warehouse for what we call the pre-deal meet.
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: There at that meeting, they would discuss when the dope
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: was coming in, how long it was going to stay
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: in town, and how much money J.J. was going to
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: pay for the officers to guard the dope.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Once inside, Davis told J.J. that he had half a
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: dozen more officers lined up to guard the cocaine shepherds.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: They would work in 10-hour shifts, uniformed police outside guarding
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: payloads of cocaine incidents. up to a quarter of a
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: million dollars' worth in each letter. At that June meeting
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: came the first big payments from JJ. More than $ 10, 000.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: Everything is going smooth. But one aspect of the warehouse
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: plan bothered Assistant U.S. Attorney Al Winters.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Basically, what we told the agents, unless we had evidence,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: irrefutable evidence, that these people knew they were guarding cocaine,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we couldn't prosecute it.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Because the cops stood guard outside the warehouse, they could
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: later claim they didn't know that drugs were inside. Hadden
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: had to find a way to prove Davis' recruits saw
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: the drug shits. His team mulled over ways to bring
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: the drugs into plain view. The officers would have to
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: be recorded seeing and discussing the shipment. Shipments were delivered
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: to the warehouse one weekend every month according to schedule. Then,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: in mid-July, the FBI sent a shipment that the guards
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: didn't expect. With one load already in the warehouse, an
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: FBI agent dressed as a courier brought another shipment. The
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: driver shocked the guard cops by unloading the cocaine in
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: plain sight. This was too overt for Len Davis' crew.
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: They didn't want to see drugs at all.
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: They didn't want the vehicles outside the warehouse unloading drugs
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: and stuff where the officers could actually see it.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: The cops called Sammy Williams on a cell phone J.J.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: had given him. Williams called J.J., and J.J. and Scabu
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: raced to the warehouse. J.J. responded like a hot-headed drug dealer.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I was arguing with this guy. We were actually screaming
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: at each other. What are you doing? Where are you?
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: And he's observing us. There's a police officer calling Lynn.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: telling him all what's going on and how this doesn't
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: look good.
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: To the cops, this whole drug operation was starting to
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: look dangerously unprofessional. Concerned, the driver made another call. Sammy
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Williams arrived to straighten out the problem. JJ explained it
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: was the driver's school. He asked that the cops escort
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: the van to the city limits right away. Despite the risk,
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: the episode worked. It showed that the cops knew what
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: was inside the warehouse.
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: And it was all videotaped.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Let him go.
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: But the episode raised doubts for the cops. Either JJ
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: was an amateur or he was part of a sting.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: Either way, they'd be watching him more closely now. Shattered
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: Shield wore on into the summer as all of New
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: Orleans baked. In August, guarding the warehouse proved hard duty.
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: The cops complained of the wear and tear on their
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: engines from running the air conditioning all day in the heat.
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: They wanted a vehicle that was more comfortable, that could
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: also endure the long hours, perhaps a van. The officers
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: asked Lynn Davis to provide one, and Davis.
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: Brought their request to JJ. For the investigation, it.
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: Was a huge break. The sweaty cops had just handed
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: the FBI a golden opportunity.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: It was a stroke of luck. One day Lynn approached
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: me and said that the officers were complaining that they're
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: running their cars in air-conditioned The cars are starting to overheat,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: they're burning gas, on and on and on. Once we
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: were able to rent the van and put the listening
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: device inside, we were able to hear a lot more conversations.
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: The FBI quickly filed the paperwork to get court-authorized wiretaps
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: for the van. Technicians carefully installed state-of-the-art microphones. They had
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: to yield top sound quality for months with no maintenance.
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: The van was a perfect Trojan horse for getting inside information.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: The shiny new van made the officers suspicious. They wondered
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: if anyone could have tampered with it. They wanted to
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: know exactly where Davis had gotten the vehicle. Because J.J.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: had so completely won Davis' trust, Davis told the cops
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: that he himself had rented the van. He vouched for it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: That calmed their fears. Len Davis didn't want anyone upsetting
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: his flow of payments. The FBI would soon learn just
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: how ruthlessly Davis guarded his interests. After three months of
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: shattered shield, more and more New Orleans cops came under
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: the FBI's investigations Len Davis and undercover agent J.J. met
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: often to discuss drug shipments and payoffs for police protection.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: Davis made frequent threats.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: They'll tell you, we run this city. We do whatever
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: we want to do. They let me know that very
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: many times. If they feel like they want to shut
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: it down, they'll shut it down.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: But Davis liked the money.
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: J.J.
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: Knew that as long as the money flowed, He would
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: never shut the operation down. Davis called the shots for
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: the other officers. He recruited and set the schedules using
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: his cell phone. But he complained about his bill. So J.J.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: offered Davis a new cell phone, free of charge. It
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: was one more way the FBI could record the cops'
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: knowing involvement in drug trafficking. The wires the FBI had
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: planted in the warehouse van were paying off. One night,
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: two guards on the graveyard shift brought prostitutes to the van.
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: The wires picked up everything, even the cops' sexual indiscretions.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: When Jenkins heard this, she immediately phoned JJ. The situation
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: was a chance to catch the cops off-balance. JJ called
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: Davis to complain and to see what they'd get on tape.
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: He told Davis he had checked out the warehouse and
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: found that the cops weren't protecting it. JJ wasn't paying
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: cops to have sex. He ordered Davis to straighten things out.
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: Davis arrived in a fury. His henchmen were threatening to
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: ruin his whole operation.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Lynn was upset. Lynn was a businessman through and through.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Lynn wanted it to work. work exactly one way. And
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: he was really upset that I was upset. And he
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: got up. He got up. He came out there and
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: just kicked everybody out.
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: J.J. 's call brought Davis down on him hard that night.
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: But the episode triggered deep suspicions among the dirty cops.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: They now felt sure that JJ was the problem and
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: believed they could run the operation better themselves. They discussed
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: ways to kill JJ.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: Their plans alarmed.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: Agent Karen Jenkins. When I heard those conversations where they
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: were threatening to do harm to our undercover agent, it
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: sent a chill down my spine. It scared me. Before
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: I came to New Orleans, I had worked with J.J.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: in another office, so I knew him personally, and I
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: was very concerned.
• 30:40
  Speaker 7: Despite the threats to his life, J.J.
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: Was resolute, keeping the cops engaged with plans to further
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: expand the operations. He promised Davis that the largest shipment
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: would arrive before Christmas. After that, he would move the
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: deliveries to another part of the city. All the time, J.J.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: had to draw out more evidence on tape without making
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: Davis suspicious.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: He was very careful. He watched everything. He paid attention
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: to everything I said. There were conversations where we'd talk,
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: And I'd use the word cocaine. He would count the
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: times I used it. He would tell me, Jay, you
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: said cocaine five times. Jay, you said kilos five times.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: So I had to be careful.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: At the same time, Haddon and his team had to
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: defuse another plot they overheard. The cops were threatening to
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: kill the couriers and steal the cocaine. The agents scrambled
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: delivery time. and mapped new routes to and from the
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: warehouse to keep the cops off balance. With so many
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: dirty cops, the FBI couldn't make a clean sweep from
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: the outside alone. Agents would need someone powerful in the
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: police force to be a strong ally. Despite the danger
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: of leaks, they decided to seek help from within the
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: New Orleans Police Department. October 1994 brought fresh changes to
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: New Orleans in a new police chief, Richard Pennington. Pennington
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: was an outsider from Washington, D.C., hired in the hopes
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: of reforming the Crescent City's crooked police force.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: The FBI invited the new chief for a meeting. Then
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Haddon introduced J.J.
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: He informed Pennington that Operation Shattered Shield was uncovering corruption
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: deep in the force that he was about to head.
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: His cooperation would be critical for the success of Operation
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: Shattered Shield.
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: On the streets of New Orleans, Davis.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: And Williams were still on active duty, cruising their territory.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: Len Davis had a long list of public complaints against him.
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: During their rounds one night that October, Davis and Sammy
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: Williams patrolled the Desire housing project. Seeing the pair of cops.
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: Approach, two youths took flight.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: Williams chased one teenager down, bludgeoned him, and left him
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: bleeding in the street. At that moment, Kim Groves, the
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: victim's aunt, decided that police had terrorized their neighborhood long enough.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Who's going to pay the bill?
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: The next day, Groves, a 32-year-old mother of three, filed
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: a complaint against Lynn Davis and his partner. She cited
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: the pair for police violence. An officer alerted Davis about
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: the complaint.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Do you want to know his name?
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: Officer Davis.
• 34:06
  Speaker 8: Do you know him?
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike McMahon saw the report.
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: She reported.
• 34:12
  Speaker 9: Not only Sammy Williams, who did the actual brutality, but
• 34:16
  Speaker 9: Len Davis as well, who had nothing to do with
• 34:20
  Speaker 9: that pistol whipping. And at that point, Len Davis became enraged.
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: For Davis, Grove's complaint came at the worst possible time.
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: It would bring unwanted attention just as the new police
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: chief was coming on board. Len Davis vowed to get revenge.
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: The same day that Kim Groves filed her complaint, Richard
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: Pennington was sworn in as New Orleans' new chief of police.
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: That marked the start of Shattered Shield's final phase, the
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: shift from an FBI effort to a partnership with a
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: city desperate to clean house. That very night, Agent Jenkins
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: recorded several conversations that would show just how rotten some
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: of the city's men in blue had become The first
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: call was cryptic. Hours after Pennington was sworn in, Len.
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: Davis made a call on his cell phone.
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: He gave an order to an unknown man. The FBI
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: taped the conversation, but because Davis spoke in modified police code,
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: agents didn't know what it meant. While they attempted to
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: decipher it, agents recorded a second, more disturbing call. This time,
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: the unknown man called Davis. As they spoke, a police
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: dispatcher announced a murder in the Desire housing project. The
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: victim's name, Kim Groves. When Davis heard the news, he cried,
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: It was the triumphant cry of a killer. When he
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: later heard it, the call shocked Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike McMahon.
• 36:22
  Speaker 9: As soon as he confirmed the name of Kim Groves,
• 36:25
  Speaker 9: Davis shut off the radio and then on the wiretap
• 36:29
  Speaker 9: conversation over the cell phone just exulted in a primal
• 36:36
  Speaker 9: scream of delight that indeed Kim Groves was dead.
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: When agents reviewed the tapes and checked the phone records,
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: they discovered that the man who spoke to Davis was
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: Paul Hardy.
• 36:52
  Speaker 7: Davis had asked Hardy for.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: A 30, a police code normally used to report a homicide.
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: But that night, Davis used it as an order for
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: the murder of Kim Groves.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: Kim!
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: Canvassing the project's Agents quickly learned that Hardy was a
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: known drug dealer who led a small gang of thugs.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: With the help of two accomplices, Hardy acted quickly, coldly,
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: and for just $ 300. As he sped away over a bridge,
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: Hardy threw the barrel of the gun into the canal.
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: and handed the body and the gun to an accomplice
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: for safekeeping. When the FBI realized Davis' role in the murder,
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: agents grew more concerned for J.J. 's safety. J.J. met
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: with Davis soon afterwards, He looked carefully for signs that
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: Davis was anxious or upset. He saw none. The murder
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: of Kim Grove seemed to have relaxed Davis. J.J. still
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: had to play his part, the role of a drug lord.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: Though uneasy, he was careful not to talk about the murder.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: I wanted to ask a lot of questions about it.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: I couldn't. The only thing I'd ask him was, is
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: there anything different happening since the last time I was here?
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: He said no. And we went on just like nothing
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: ever happened. Is he a cold-blooded killer? I could probably
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: do you in a minute? Yeah.
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: Having seen what Davis and his cops could do, J.J.
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: had every reason to believe that he could be next.
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: He was unaware that they were already planning ways to
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: kill him. Days after Len Davis ordered the murder of
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: Kim Groves, the FBI learned of more threats by Davis' men.
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: A New Orleans police officer assisting in Operation Shattered Shield
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: received an anonymous threat. It came with Kim Grove's obituary.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: The message was clear. Death would come to those who talked.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: That day, Stan Haddon learned of still more threats against
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: JJ and the other agents. Agent Jenkins had recorded five
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: cops at the warehouse plotting to kill the couriers and JJ.
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: Then they would steal the cocaine and sell it themselves.
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: Haddon had no choice. the FBI had to wrap up
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: the operation before it was too late.
• 39:55
  Speaker 8: Once we realized that the lives of our undercover agents
• 39:57
  Speaker 8: were at serious risk, then we had to react to it.
• 40:01
  Speaker 8: We had to do something.
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: The FBI needed to move up their plans for the
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: big shipment J.J. had promised to Davis. A cocaine shipment
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: so large that it would require a half dozen more
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: cops to guard it. But Haddon needed a location unfamiliar
• 40:15
  Speaker 5: to the cops, a place where the FBI could mobilize quickly.
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: He and his team scouted the Mardi Gras truck stop
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: on Elysian Fields Avenue. The spot had good highway access.
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: It also posed little risk to the public in the
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: event of a shootout. The cocaine would arrive on an 18-wheeler,
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: then be loaded into cars and escorted by the cops
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: out of the city. Every detail had to be mapped out.
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: The plan would require the coordination of 85 agents positioned
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: strategically along the routes. When Davis put out the word
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: about a huge November 18th shipment, he enticed new recruits.
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: As a load of cocaine worth a quarter of a
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: million dollars arrived, Davis, Williams, and their crew stood ready
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: as protection. Agents posing as drivers moved the shipment. From
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: the command center, Haddon and Jenkins kept watch of the
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: whole operation. There were hundreds of ways the truck stop
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: scenario could go wrong. With the undercover agents' lives on
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: the line, there was no margin for error. The cocaine
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: was divided in two loads. Williams escorted one. Davis followed
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: the other. They shepherded the couriers to the edge of town,
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: shielding them from other drug gangs and from the law.
• 42:00
  Speaker 8: To make it easier for our surveillance, we had one
• 42:02
  Speaker 8: of the courier cars go to the east and one
• 42:05
  Speaker 8: go to the west because we had two complete surveillance
• 42:07
  Speaker 8: teams operating simultaneously, and we didn't want the two to
• 42:10
  Speaker 8: get crossed up with each other.
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: The operation went off without a hitch. Six additional cops
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: were videotaped in the act of drug trafficking. The FBI
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: was about to enter the last phase of Shattered Shield
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: arresting the corrupt cops who would kill anyone who opposed them.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: After the big truck stop operation, FBI agents moved quickly
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: on the murder of Kim Groves. They searched the house
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: of the hitman, Paul Hardy. There, agents found an unauthorized
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: copy of a guide to police codes, the same codes
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: that Davis used when he ordered Grove's murder. Another search
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: at the home of one of Hardy's accomplices turned up
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: the murder weapon, a 9mm handgun. The two investigations, Shattered
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: Shield and the murder, were closing at the same time.
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: For the ringleaders, the FBI took no chances. Agents came
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: to Len Davis' house the next day when he was
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: off duty. Look, I ain't done nothing.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: Look, I'm a police officer, man.
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: The thug with a badge was arrested on federal drug
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: charges and for the murder of Kim Groves.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: I ain't done nothing.
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: For Davis's partner, Sammy Williams, agents would use a different approach.
• 43:55
  Speaker 5: Haddon wanted to flip Williams to the prosecution side.
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: It worked.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: And they decided, OK, let's throw another curveball and then
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: let's bring Juan in. So they brought me into the
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: door and I introduced myself, especially to Juan Jackson, the FBI.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: You could see the color leave his face. His world
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: just came crashing down.
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: Sammy Williams turned government witness. His testimony would later prove
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: crucial for getting convictions. Haddon and his team had no
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: time to lose. Before news of Davis and Williams' arrests
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: could spread, they had to deliver the rest of the
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: gang to justice, dozens of armed men in uniform.
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: The strategy we were to employ was to arrest Lynn
• 44:45
  Speaker 8: Davis on December the 5th, And then on December the 6th,
• 44:49
  Speaker 8: we had all of these officers appear before a federal
• 44:52
  Speaker 8: grand jury. And then on December 7th, the grand jury
• 44:55
  Speaker 8: ordered all these officers to come to the FBI office
• 44:58
  Speaker 8: to give handwriting exemplars.
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: Len Davis' recruits arrived at the FBI's office to give
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: handwriting samples for analysis together with 60 fellow officers. Since
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: the drug ring involved no written records and so many
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: officers provided writing samples, the crooked cops suspected nothing. Like
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: the others before it, the FBI's ruse worked. One by one,
• 45:34
  Speaker 5: more than a dozen dirty cops of New Orleans were arrested.
• 45:40
  Speaker 8: That was a safe way to do it because obviously
• 45:43
  Speaker 8: all of these officers were armed and they were facing
• 45:45
  Speaker 8: very serious charges, and that was a way to do
• 45:47
  Speaker 8: it to avoid any potential for any bloodshed or any
• 45:51
  Speaker 8: unwanted resistance by the officers.
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: In court, the FBI's recordings built a solid case against
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: the officers. The videos and audio tapes spoke louder than
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: the code words and erased all doubts that jurors might
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: have had. Agent Karen Jenkins knew the evidence was strong.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: The jury was able to hear for themselves what the
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: officers said.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: They were able to.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: See for themselves what they were doing because of the
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: videos that we had.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: That wasn't me. It could have been anybody.
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: As Prosecutor Al Winters had predicted early in the investigation,
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: Davis tried to talk his way out of it.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: All police officers know what that is. It's a homicide.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Even after all the safeguards we took, Davis' defense at
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the trial was that he was conducting his own undercover operation,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: that it was not really done according to the book, but,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: you know, he was a poor cop and didn't have
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of training, but he was trying to conduct
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: his own undercover operation.
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: Davis never admitted any wrongdoing. He didn't need to. The
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: audio and videotape spoke for themselves. Faced with the prospect
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: of convicting those sworn to protect them, the citizens of
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: the jury listened intently.
• 47:10
  Speaker 9: The tapes were chilling, and as those tapes were played,
• 47:16
  Speaker 9: the courtroom was as silent as a cathedral.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: Has the jury reached a verdict? Yes, Your Honor, we have.
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: Will the defendant please stand? The jury deliberated just 15 minutes.
• 47:32
  Speaker 8: We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in
• 47:35
  Speaker 8: the first degree and hereby sentence the defendant.
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: Len Davis was sentenced to death for his role in
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: Kim Grove's murder, which was later commuted to life. In
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: two other trials, Davis and his co-conspirators received 18 convictions
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: for drug trafficking. Fifteen officers were headed for prison. Because
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: he cooperated with prosecutors, Sammy Williams.
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: Was sentenced to just five years.
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: He would never again wear a badge. You have irrevocably
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: stained that uniform you once wore. But I must reluctantly
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: recognize that other crimes can only be solved with cooperation
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: of people like you.
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: Court dismissed.
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: For the Big Easy, Haddon's case brought a long, hard
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: look in the mirror.
• 48:30
  Speaker 8: You know, I think that the city of New Orleans
• 48:32
  Speaker 8: has been very tolerant of all sorts of conduct, which
• 48:37
  Speaker 8: might be considered improper in other parts of the country.
• 48:39
  Speaker 8: It's part of the culture here, and I'm a Louisiana native.
• 48:43
  Speaker 8: But I think this was a wake-up call to the
• 48:45
  Speaker 8: citizens of New Orleans that there was a serious problem
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: within the NOPD, and that problem had to be addressed.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: You know, you take an oath, and I think that
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: when you do that, there's no excuse for anything else.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: I think we helped. I think that now their focus
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: is different. I think hiring, I think pay scale, I
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: think everything about what the New Orleans Police Department is
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: about is different.
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: Under Chief Pennington, the New Orleans Police Department revamped its
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: practices and fired more rogue cops. The Big Easy had
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: cleaned house. The department and the FBI continue to work
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: together to bring justice to the city's streets.