Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has lost his appeal as a federal court rejected it. He failed in convincing the court's panel that the jury in his trial received unlawful instructions about nine counts of 'honest services' wire fraud.
According to Star Tribune, Nagin, a Democrat, who has served from 2002 to 2010, was proven guilty on charges of bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns. Also, prosecutors stated that graft in his administration started way before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 then it thrived later on.
The bribes were in the form of money, expense-free vacations and truckloads of free granite intended for his family business. Out of all these, the jury acquitted him on one bribery count though, The New Orleans Advocate reported.
Aside from his appeal regarding his jury being given illegal instructions, Judges James Dennis, Gregg Costa and Fortunato Benavides rejected as well Nagin's allegation that the penalty amounting to $501,000 imposed by U.S. District Judge Helen 'Ginger' Berrigan was illegal. ABC News stated that Berrigan was the judge that Nagin had argued to have given erroneous instructions to the jury that sentenced him. However, the judges wrote in their ruling that no error was found in the instructions of the jury.
As for Attorney Jordan Siverd, he stated that the jury must have been told and made aware that only if the prosecutors could prove that the money that Nagin accepted actually influenced his behavior in the office could the former mayor be found guilty. Nagin has received nine $12,500 payments from a post-mayoral consulting contract with developer Frank Fradella, who made the payments after Nagin left the office.
Right now, the 59-year-old detainee is serving a sentence for 10 years at a low-security federal prison located in Texarkana, Texas. He is the first ever New Orleans mayor to be imprisoned for corruption as he was convicted by the jury in 2014 on 20 of 21 counts of an indictment in 2013. He was accused of trading his political influence for city contractor bribes.
