CLEANUP STAINED BY COP'S PAST

On Sept. 10, 1982, a New Orleans police officer accepted a drunken woman's
invitation to join her in room 632 of the Fairmont Hotel.

The woman, an informant, claimed she had information about the officer's
stolen service revolver and asked him to bring some "baby powder."

The officer disrobed and joined the woman in bed. Office of Municipal
Investigation agents then burst into the room and arrested him.

They found cocaine in the officer's pocket. The officer claimed he had
picked it up after some suspects dropped it.

The officer claimed that he had no idea the woman wanted cocaine when she
asked for "baby powder." The Civil Service Commission terminated the
officer, but the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal found that he had
been entrapped and ordered him reinstated.

The officer was Joe Maumus.

Execution demanded

In March 1990, Adolph Archie allegedly stole a gun from a guard at the
Superdome and killed the officer, Earl Hauck, who tried to arrest him.
Archie was arrested and handcuffed during what police said was an attempt
to shoot an officer.

Hearing on the police radio that one of their own had been shot, several
officers demanded that Archie be executed. "Somebody kill him," one officer
said on a tape released in 1993. Archie, who was injured in the arrest, was
taken to Charity Hospital where a mob of angry officers awaited him. He was
then diverted to a police station.

Though handcuffed, Archie was able to move his hands from behind his back
to in front of him, officers said. One officer admitted punching Archie to
subdue him, according to reports published at the time.

Later, at the hospital, Archie died. Doctors concluded that he had been
beaten. In a wrongful death lawsuit, a medical examiner found Archie's
larynx was fractured, there was extensive bleeding in his pelvis, neck and
back and there were shoe-sized indentations in his skull.

Coroner Frank Minyard ruled the death, "homicide, police intervention."

A grand jury declined to indict the officers. The officer who admitted to
the punching and who drove Archie after his arrest was Joe Maumus.

Ethical standards

Joe Maumus is now the driver for chief administrative officer Kimberly
Williamson.

Williamson said she was aware of Maumus' involvement in the Archie
homicide, but that in the year she's known him he's shown himself to be an
honest, God-fearing man.

He's become not just her driver, but her "point person" in the Nagin
administration's laudable anti-corruption effort. Nagin's and Williamson's
hard work in the long overdue cleanup of City Hall has earned richly
deserved praise.

But Maumus' too-intimate knowledge of sting operations and his involvement
in the Archie killing render him an appalling choice for a position
requiring high ethical standards.