CANDIDATE CITES HIS 1977 COCAINE ARREST

He Seeks To Address Likely Campaign Issue

Seeking to defuse a potential campaign bombshell, acting Orleans Parish
Criminal Sheriff William Bill Hunter confirmed Friday he was arrested for
cocaine possession in 1977.

Hunter, who was a Marine infantryman in the Vietnam War, said the
lapse resulted from the confusion and post-traumatic stress that
enveloped him upon his return to civilian life.

I allowed myself to be in bad company although I did not personally
use drugs, he said. I found myself in a situation where the police
could suspect that I was involved. It was a terrible experience.

He pleaded guilty to the charge, but the Louisiana Supreme Court
eventually reversed the plea and the case was dropped. The incident
arose after two police officers stopped Hunter and one of them
allegedly felt in his pocket a small vial and a miniature spoon,
common accouterments of cocaine use, according to court records.
However, neither the vial nor the spoon were ever introduced at an
evidentiary hearing, the Supreme Court noted in tossing out the case.

Hunter said he has never used cocaine but chose to acknowledge the
incident now rather than scramble to answer charges about the matter
later, and hold to his pledge to run a transparent sheriff's office
and jail. I had valid information from someone I trust that either the
media or one of my opponents had this information and if I didn't get
out ahead of it, it would be worse for me, Hunter said. I can't change
history; it happened, and I have to deal with it.

His announcement overshadowed other developments in the race to
succeed Charles Foti as the city's criminal sheriff, a campaign whose
crowded field has shone a spotlight on some fractures in New Orleans'
political establishment.

For example, five City Council members joined their colleague, Marlin
Gusman, at a press conference Friday to announce their support of
Gusman's bid for the sheriff's star. Their endorsement came less than
a day after Mayor Ray Nagin endorsed another candidate, former Deputy
Police Chief Warren Riley, and set off speculation about what kind of
blow the citywide sheriff election Sept. 18 will deliver to the
working relationship between the administration and the council.

Council President Eddie Sapir denied there was any confrontation
between the executive and legislative arms of City Hall, but he took a
sarcastic swipe or two at the value of Nagin's political coin, when
asked about the divergent endorsements.

You'd like to have every endorsement in any race, but of course if
Nagin hadn't endorsed that kid on 'American Idol' he might have been
the champion, he said. Sapir's jest referred to Nagin publicly
throwing his support behind local singer George Huff in the popular
television show this year. Gusman sidestepped the political
undercurrents. He said his tenure as chief administrative officer in
Marc Morial's regime gives him valuable crime-fighting experience. On
Friday and in other forums, Gusman trumpeted his key role in helping
to reform the New Orleans Police Department and reduce the city's
stratospheric murder rate in the mid-1990s. I feel compelled to step
up because I believe the city of New Orleans is facing a crisis,
Gusman said, citing resurgent crime statistics. I'm going to be a
great partner to the NOPD and we're going to do a lot together. But
the lone council member missing from Gusman's event, Oliver Thomas,
suggested Gusman lacks the necessary experience. Echoing Nagin's
comments that an unreleased poll shows the public wants a professional
crimefighter as sheriff, Thomas said he is leaning toward Riley,
Hunter or school district security chief Ira Thomas.

In addition, Thomas said the group endorsement proffered by his
colleagues smacks of machine politics, and predicted it could backfire
on a public that is increasingly leery. Even so, Thomas is the most
prominent elected member of BOLD, and Gusman is strongly linked to
Morial's LIFE, meaning the two council members are figureheads for New
Orleans' most powerful African-American political organizations.

Meanwhile, not far from where Hunter stood inside Orleans Parish
Prison revealing his past brushes with the law, another candidate, the
Rev. Raymond Brown, stood on the prison's steps outlining what he
would do if chosen to replace Hunter.

Specifically, Brown said the job training programs at the Parish
Prison are a sham, that the practice of holding misdemeanor arrestees
past midnight to take a per diem payment from the city is widespread,
and that the Roman Catholic Church has a stranglehold on ministry
efforts within the jail. Brown insisted he is not trying to pick a
religious fight, and he did not criticize the Catholic efforts.
Rather, he said a committee should be formed that would make more
denominations available to inmates seeking counseling. The other
common-sense, cost-saving steps can be taken immediately, he said.
These are all things that can, and should, be done right now, he said.
The per diem is draining the city's coffers, and all they've got for
job training is really a boot camp.