Posted on 11/16/2005 2:31:44 PM PST by LA Woman3
A former New Orleans police officer is facing federal charges for allegedly driving a vehicle looted from a Cadillac dealership across state lines.
Willie Earl Bickham Jr., 36, was charged with felony interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle after his arrest in Houston, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday. Bickham, who resigned from the police department the week after Hurricane Katrina, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Houston police said Bickham admitted taking the truck.
Letten said crossing state lines in a stolen vehicle threw the matter into his jurisdiction. The federal government is trying to send a message that any effort to profit from the storm will be dealt with aggressively, Letten said.
During Hurricane Katrina, more than 200 vehicles, including 88 new Cadillacs and Chevrolets, were taken from a dealership. Police acknowledged that some of the cars were taken to replace flooded police cars.
Two men who were not police officers have been charged with looting, burglary, theft and possession of stolen property. They were charged as part of an investigation of the incident by the state attorney general's office.
The dealership is still missing 11 new cars, 37 used cars and 11 customers' cars, dealership president Doug Stead said on Wednesday.
"Those and our little tractor we used to move vehicles," Stead said. "It only goes 12 miles an hour, but it disappeared and we never found it."
Wonder if that St. Tam councilman was riding with him?
Good news!
You, Mr. Bickham, are a dumbass.
What amazes me, is he apparently thought he could keep it. Like the paper trail (or lack of paper trail) wouldn't nail him. If he were selling it to a chop shop it would make much more sense...
Good, I hope they croak all these miscreants.
Yeah, but was it a cop who actually existed or one of the phony "payroll" cops? If he was a "payroll" cop, he probably thought he was invisible.
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