A former New Orleans police officer has been charged with concealing his knowledge of an alleged police cover-up in the Danziger Bridge shootings shortly after Hurricane Katrina.
The former officer is Jeffrey Lehrmann, an investigator who arrived at the scene of the Sept. 4, 2005 shootings shortly after they happened. Lehrmann was charged in a bill of information Feb. 22, which was unsealed by prosecutors Tuesday.
Defendants who are charged by bill of information, rather than grand jury indictment, have typically signed plea agreements with the federal government to cooperate. Lehrmann is charged with misprision of a felony -- or knowing about a crime and failing to report it -- a charge often filed against cooperating witnesses.
Lehrmann, who had been a detective in the 7th District, participated in some of the investigation in the weeks after the shooting, according to police documents. He also rode in an ambulance to West Jefferson Medical Center with the four surviving shooting victims.
A plea hearing is set for Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lance Africk.
It's unclear when Lehrmann's apparent cooperation with federal investigators began, but the bill of information says his concealment of the cover-up ended in October 2009. He is accused of concealing a conspiracy, as well as participating "in the creation of false reports and the provision of false information to investigating agents."
Lehrmann is the second former New Orleans police officer to be charged in the scheme.
Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to conspiring to obstruct justice by orchestrating a cover-up of what he considered to be a "bad shoot." Lohman said officers planted a gun and altered witness statements to make it appear that the shooting of six people, two fatally, was justified. He also admitted to falsifying the police report.
Unlike Lohman, who was a 21-year NOPD veteran, Lehrmann was on the force for a short period of time. After serving more than eight years as a deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office, Lehrmann was hired by the NOPD in March 2005. He left the job in Sept. 2006, according to civil service records.
At some point after leaving the NOPD, Lehrmann joined the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He is currently employed in the Phoenix ICE office, according to an agency spokesman, who declined to comment further on his work status.
Although Lehrmann was an NOPD officer for only a year and a half, he did participate in one of the most high-profile investigations in recent years: the Central City shooting deaths of five teenagers in the summer of 2006.
Lehrmann was the detective in the investigation who interviewed the sole eyewitness, whose testimony led to the arrest of Michael Anderson, said Richard Bourke, a defense attorney representing Anderson. That case was recently overturned when a judge found that the Orleans Parish district attorney's office improperly withheld a videotaped interview with that eyewitness that contained information helpful to the defense.
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