21 indicted in narcotics racketeering case tied to Harvey Hustlers gang, records indicate

Jefferson Parish courthouse stock pic.jpg

The entrance to the 24th Judicial District Court, located in the Thomas F. Donelon Building at the Jefferson Parish Government Center in Gretna. Donelon was a parish president and Harahan mayor (Paul Purpura, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune).

A grand jury indicted 21 people in a sweeping state racketeering case in Jefferson Parish that involved illegal narcotics sales, firearms and attempted murders.

Assistant District Attorney Doug Freese filed the indictment under seal in state court Thursday (Feb. 27), giving no explanation for the secrecy.

State and federal court records indicate the defendants have ties to the notorious Harvey Hustlers. The West Bank-based street gang is known to use violence to control its drug-dealing activities throughout the New Orleans area, and authorities tie it to at least five West Bank homicides since 2010.

Prosecutors and available court records didn't name any of the 21 defendants charged Thursday, but court docket information show that all but one are West Bank residents; the other has a Harahan address. Only one of the 21 people is a woman, the records indicate.

Each defendant is charged with racketeering. Other charges vary among the defendants, but generally involve conspiracy to sell illegal narcotics and distribution of cocaine, the court records show.

Two defendants are charged with illegal weapons offenses, including being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a gun with an obliterated serial number.

Three of the defendants each are charged with five counts of attempted second-degree murder. Court records indicate that those three men are the same people charged in a pending attempted murder case in Jefferson's 24th Judicial District Court. That suggests Thursday's grand jury handed up a superseding indictment, which can add new charges or totally replace charges in an existing case.

Freese, who handled Thursday's grand jury indictment, is prosecuting those pending attemped murder cases as well.

The pending attempted murder cases, in Judge Henry Sullivan's court, stem from an April 22, 2013, shooting at the Lapalco Court Apartments in Harvey. Authorities say two gunmen knocked on an apartment door claiming they were police. When a woman opened the door, the gunmen opened fire with an AK-47 and a pistol, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Three toddlers, ages 1, 2 and 3, and two women, ages 63 and 67, were wounded. The 1-year-old girl was left paralyzed. At least two other people who were in the apartment were not injured and were suspected of being the gunmen's intended targets.

In that case, Jefferson Parish prosecutors in June 2013 charged Frankie Hookfin Jr., 23, of Wagamann; LaShawn Davis, 21, of unincorporated Gretna; Charlie A. Gumms, 19, of Terrytown; and Davante Robertson, 21, of Terrytown. Authorities assert they're tied to the Harvey Hustlers. All four have pleaded not guilty.

Each of them was charged in 2013 with five counts of attempted second-degree murder. Hookfin is charged with other offenses, accused of being the driver who led deputies on a pursuit that ended at the Earhart Boulevard exit from the Pontchartrain Expressway, in New Orleans, where all four suspects were arrested.

According to federal prosecutors, Hookfin is a member of the Harvey Hustlers. He was one of 12 defendants indicted in U.S. District Court in New Orleans last year on gun and drug charges.

Hookfin was charged anew on Feb. 13 with federal murder and drug offenses. In that indictment, federal prosecutors say Hookfin and other defendants were involved in two West Bank homicides. Emeal Washington, 58, was shot dead in the 6100 block of August Avenue in Marrero on Feb. 11, 2013. Doretha Richardson, 81, was killed in her Bridge City home in the 300 block of Fifth Street, on Feb. 15, 2013.

Federal prosecutors also say that two of Hookfin's associates killed Shanna Girod, 19, and Willie Odom, 22, on Aug. 18, 2012, as the couple sat in a car with two children at U.S. 90 and Lapalco Boulevard in Avondale.

Authorities believe the Harvey Hustlers gang was formed in the mid-1980s, and included a so-called "murder squad" that tended to the group's violent work and collected drug debt. They also have been linked to the April 1, 2010, shooting death of Reginald Francois, 24, of Marrero, who was gunned down in Harvey.

Freese filed Thursday's indictment in 24th Judicial District Judge Stephen Grefer's court. Such matters are generally handled in open court. However, Grefer ordered a reporter out of the courtroom Thursday as the indictment was filed.

Jefferson Parish prosecutors ask judges to file indictments under seal sparingly. But when they do, it generally means that the person or people charged are not yet in custody. Only after the defendants are arrested do prosecutors ask the judges to unseal the cases, allowing the public to see the records.