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Louisiana Judges Charged with Public Corruption and RICO crimes

By McNabb Associates

A federal grand jury has charged two Caddo Parish, Louisiana judges with taking bribes to give light sentences.[1] District Judges Michael Walker and Vernon Claville, along with bondsmen Robert Bradford and Larry Williams, all of Shreveport, were indicted on multiple RICO violations.[2]Federal authorities began their investigation of Walker in 2003. Investigators were able to substantiate that Walker was fixing cases through a review of the sentences he imposed over a period of time in the Caddo drug court.[3] Bradford and a cooperating witness are alleged to have acted as middlemen for Walker. [4]FBI authorized wiretaps on cellular telephones aided authorities in investigation that was dubbbed code name "Broken Gavel."[5] A series of calls intercepted in late February and early March detailed a plan of one man to gain Walker's favor with a state probation hold of his girlfriend...continue to full post

Full post as published by Federal Crimes Blog on October 11, 2007 (boomark / email).