New Orleans cops urged to lawyer up

NEW ORLEANS, June 2 (UPI) -- FBI probes of three cases involving New Orleans police officers have prompted union officials to remind officers of their rights, an e-mail indicates.

Members of the Fraternal Order of Police last week got an e-mail from the union reminding officers about the federal probes and encouraging them to invoke their right to have an attorney present when questioned by FBI agents either as a suspect in a crime or as a witness, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Tuesday.

Retired New Orleans police officer and FOP leader Jim Gallagher told the newspaper no one should talk to the FBI without an attorney, noting it is a federal crime to lie to an agent.

FBI agents are conducting probes of two Hurricane Katrina-related incidents. One of them involves a confrontation between police and residents on the Danziger Bridge after the 2005 storm in which two men were left dead. Federal investigators are reportedly also looking into possible civil rights violations in the case of a 31-year-old man whose remains were pulled out of a burned car.

The Times-Picayune said the FBI is also investigating the New Year's Day police shooting of 22-year-old man in front of his grandmother's 6th Ward house.