The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
Opelousas is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish,Louisiana,United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were constructed with a junction here. According to the 2020 census,Opelousas has a population of 15,786,a 6.53 percent decline since the 2010 census,which had recorded a population of 16,634. Opelousas is the principal city for the Opelousas-Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area,which had an estimated population of 80,808 in 2020. Opelousas is also the fourth largest city in the Lafayette-Acadiana Combined Statistical Area,which has a population of 537,947.
William Jennings Jefferson is an American former politician from Louisiana whose career ended after his corruption scandal and conviction. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009 as a member of the Democratic Party. He represented Louisiana's 2nd congressional district,which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He was elected as the state's first black congressman since the end of Reconstruction.
The Territory of Orleans or Orleans Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from October 1,1804,until April 30,1812,when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Louisiana.
Renée Gill Pratt is an American politician from New Orleans,Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25,2011,she was found guilty of racketeering. For this crime,she served a 4-year sentence.
The New Orleans crime family,also known as the Marcello crime family or the New Orleans Mafia,was an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in New Orleans,Louisiana. The family had a history of criminal activity dating back to the late nineteenth century. These activities included racketeering,extortion,gambling,prostitution,narcotics distribution,money laundering,loan sharking,fencing of stolen goods,and murder. Operating along the Gulf Coast,with its main criminal activity centered in the New Orleans area,the organization reached its height of influence under bosses Silvestro Carollo and Carlos Marcello.
Helen Georgena Roberts Berrigan,known professionally as Helen Ginger Berrigan and Ginger Berrigan,is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Eldon E. Fallon is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Referred as a pioneer in the creative use of multidistrict litigations and bellwether trials,Fallon has overseen several high-profile multidistrict litigation cases in recent years,including the Xarelto,Chinese Drywall,Vioxx,and Propulsid litigations.
Mary Ann Vial Lemmon is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Stacy Aline Singleton Head is an American lawyer and former president of the New Orleans City Council.
Mose Oliver Jefferson was a member of the New Orleans family that includes his younger brother,former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson. On 21 August 2009,Mose Jefferson was convicted on four felony counts of bribery.
Betty Jefferson(born 1938) is the elected assessor of New Orleans' Fourth Municipal District;she was first elected on 1998 February 7 and was reelected in 2002 and 2006. Before her political career in New Orleans she lived for a number of years in Chicago. She is an older sister of convicted felon former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson.
Angela Coleman,daughter of New Orleans Fourth Municipal District Assessor Betty Jefferson,was one of four individuals indicted in 2009 by a federal grand jury for the U.S. Justice Department's Eastern District of Louisiana. The charges on violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act were also directed against Betty Jefferson,Mose Jefferson,and Mose Jefferson's companion Renée Gill Pratt.
James B. Letten is an American attorney. A career prosecutor,Letten served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana for more than eleven years. By the time Letten resigned as U.S. Attorney in December 2012,he was the longest-serving U.S. Attorney in the country.
Brenda Jefferson Foster was a witness for the prosecution in the 2008-2009 trials of her older siblings Betty Jefferson and Mose Jefferson,Betty Jefferson's daughter Angela Coleman,and Mose Jefferson's companion former City Councilwoman Renée Gill Pratt.
The corruption case against then Louisiana Representative William J. Jefferson in the United States started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006. He was re-elected to his seat in the fall. On June 4,2007,a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6,2008,and was the most senior Democratic incumbent to lose re-election that year. In 2009 he was tried in the US District Court in Virginia on corruption charges. On August 5,2009,he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13,2009 - the longest sentence ever given to a representative for bribery or any charge.
Michael Hanley O'Keefe Sr. was an American lawyer who served in the Louisiana State Senate for Orleans Parish from 1960 to 1983. He was later convicted of various crimes,and spent several years in prison.
McDonnell v. United States,579 U.S. 550 (2016),was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the appeal of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell's conviction for honest services fraud and Hobbs Act extortion. At issue on appeal was whether the definition of "official act" within the federal bribery statutes encompassed the actions for which McDonnell had been convicted and whether the jury had been properly instructed on this definition at trial.
Barry Weldon Ashe is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Dana Marie Douglas is an American attorney who is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She previously served as a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 2019 to 2022.
