Tagged: justice department

The U.S. Justice Department is asking to join a class action lawsuit that accuses Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman of overseeing a jail that routinely subjects prisoners to brutal, inhumane conditions.

The federal agency filed a request Monday in federal court, asking to be included as a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in April by the Southern Poverty Law Center contending the jail's conditions violate the U.S. Constitution.

A Texas-based independent oil company has officially been fined $557,000 after admitting that its negligence caused three oil spills in Jefferson Parish bayous in 2008.

The fine announced Wednesday by the Justice Department in Washington had been expected. It was the result of a plea agreement reached in May between federal authorities and Cedyco Corp. of Houston.

Cedyco agreed to pay the fine and stop operating in Louisiana.

The city of New Orleans and the federal government want to limit the role of various groups that hope to help shape federally enforced reforms in the scandal-plagued New Orleans Police Department.

An agreement was announced last month that would settle a Justice Department complaint against the city. But it requires approval of a federal judge, who is to hold a hearing on Aug. 29.