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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on a hearing about whether the New Orleans sheriff should be stripped of his control of the city’s jail (all times local):
Noon
An expert testifying in a hearing about the New Orleans jail described a harrowing sexual assault that occurred in the facility and questioned why procedures that might have prevented the incident weren’t followed.
Margo Frasier testified Monday in a hearing to decide whether a judge should take control of the city’s jail away from the sheriff.
She described the sexual assault of an inmate by another inmate while both were on suicide watch. Frasier questioned why an inmate with a history of sexual assaults was housed with the first inmate.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s lawyers are expected to begin telling his side of the story later Monday.
Gusman agreed to reforms at the jail in a 2013 consent decree. But critics say he’s been too slow to comply.
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10:20 a.m.
An expert says the New Orleans jail continues to have problems with staff using unnecessary and sometimes excessive force dealing with inmates.
Margo Frasier testified Monday in a hearing to decide whether a judge should take the running of the jail away from the city sheriff and have a third-party run it.
Frasier described one incident during which a deputy picks up an inmate by his throat and then “….body slams him to the ground.” The deputy was fired.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s lawyers are expected to begin telling his side of the story later Monday.
Gusman agreed to reforms at the jail in a consent decree approved by U.S. District Judge Lance Africk in 2013. But his critics say he has been too slow to comply with the decree’s requirements.