A New Orleans resident is suing the New Orleans Police Department in state court alleging the department has dragged its feet on fulfilling multiple public-records requests relating to payroll irregularities and a growing backlog of sexual assault evidence.
Charles “Skip” Gallagher, who media outlets describe as an NOPD watchdog, filed the lawsuit Nov. 21 in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. The complaint, which was filed with the help of the First Amendment Law Clinic at Tulane University School of Law, seeks an order directing the NOPD superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick to make the records available or to show cause why they should not be released.
Gallagher is also seeking damages and civil penalties, as well as reasonable attorneys’ fees and legal costs, according to the complaint.
“Gallagher's receipt and analysis of public records have exposed the systemic failures and corrupt activities by the NOPD,” the lawsuit states. “These include rampant payroll fraud by officers and an abhorrent backlog of sexual assault kits.”
As of May 2022, there were about 73,000 of these untested DNA samples being warehoused by the NOPD, Gallagher told the Louisiana Record. Based on public records he recently obtained, the department now has a backlog of 96,000 samples, suggesting that the problem is getting worse instead of better.
He has filed more than 50 public-records requests with the department, but there are about 36 requests that remain in limbo, he said.
“It’s a combination of incompetency and unqualified people at the crime lab as well as payroll fraud within the New Orleans Police Department,” Gallagher said. “.. I want to see a better NOPD, I want to see a better crime lab.”
One of the public-records requests sought emails sent this year by Lt. Sabrina Richardson, whom the lawsuit described as the highest-ranking NOPD officer in charge of the Public Integrity Bureau (PIB). The complaint also said the NOPD denied the existence of PIB complaint information Gallagher sought, though he has obtained a stack of these PIB reports from an anonymous source.
Some officers have made more than $200,000 annually – more than the police chief – as a result of payroll abuses, based on records showing some officers worked separate assignments simultaneously.
“Unless you’ve invented a time machine, there’s no way to do that,” Gallagher said.
Officers have committed payroll fraud by reporting that they worked security details during their regular work shifts, according to the lawsuit.
“Gallagher’s research revealed that high-ranking officers working within the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau … have committed payroll fraud,” the complaint says. “The officers in PIB are themselves responsible for investigating the allegations of police misconduct.”
Apparently, Gallagher has come under surveillance since he began his investigations of police practices in New Orleans, the lawsuit states.
“Since providing his data to news sources and making his own complaints to the NOPD, Gallagher has felt threatened, noticing unmarked cars following him,” the complaint says. “He also has received a stream of anonymous phone calls.”
In addition, he says his public-records requests have been subject to stalling or indeterminate estimates about when the requests can be provided. Meanwhile, public-records requests by others have taken as little as three to six days, Gallagher said.