NEW ORLEANS — A long-ago New Orleans police commander who became a symbol for systemic brutality and lack of consequences inside the NOPD, was given a relatively light sentence this week after being found guilty of aggravated assault in a 2022 road rage confrontation eerily similar to his patrol days.
Christopher Maurice, now 73 and many years removed from his dismissal by the NOPD, was sentenced this week to 30 days inactive probation after being convicted of misdemeanor aggravated assault.
Maurice was found guilty by New Orleans Criminal Court Judge Ben Willard after a judge trial August 3rd in which Willard blocked prosecutors’ attempts to introduce victims of prior alleged assaults.
Willard could have convicted Maurice of the felony aggravated assault with a firearm, but decided on the lesser charge.
A police report states that Maurice was booked July 15, 2022 for pulling a gun on a bicyclist who took issue with how the former police lieutenant was driving.
“The two engaged in a verbal altercation,” according to an arrest warrant for Maurice. “During the argument, the victim made a rude hand gesture toward the driver of the vehicle and in return the driver brandished a silver and black handgun and pointed the gun at the victim.”
The bicyclist took a photo of Maurice’s license plate, the warrant states, and later identified the former veteran cop out of a photo lineup.
The victim, a local attorney who requested anonymity, said he did not want prison time for Maurice, but was disappointed in Willard’s restoration of Maurice’s ability to own a gun if he successfully completes his 30-day probation.
“This is the exact type of person who shouldn’t have a gun,” the victim said in an interview after the sentencing. “This judge has allowed this person to endanger others. It’s really disheartening that the judge wouldn’t take the opportunity safeguard the public from this person.”
Maurice’s defense team declined to comment on the case.
Court records shows that Willard did order Maurice to forfeit the gun he brandished in the assault, which included an NOPD shield from his police days. But Willard fully restored his rights to carry a firearm after his probation.
The alleged road rage incident echoes more than a dozen complaints that were lodged against Maurice at a time when he was commander of the department’s inspection division, responsible for making sure other officers followed policy.
In the 1990s, complaints alleging physical or verbal abuse by Maurice routinely went nowhere. That is, until he was booked with battery in two cases in which motorists accused him of brutality during traffic stops. Around the same time, he also was suspended for getting into a fight with a fellow officer.
While those battery charges were handled as misdemeanors in Municipal Court, one led to a conviction that ultimately cost Maurice his job. In that case, he was accused of pulling over a local radio personality and smashing his face into the hood of a police car.
Far more serious cases of police wrongdoing among NOPD officers – including cases of murder, rape and robbery that drew national headlines – ultimately led the 2012 consent decree that remains in place today. That federal oversight, which also brought body cameras to the department, has made brutality complaints in the present-day NOPD relatively rare.
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