NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police did not test former U.S. Rep. and presidential adviser Cedric Richmond for intoxication after he crashed his late-model Mercedes into an oak tree along North Claiborne Avenue on the evening of April 23 with his young son on board, though a police report described him as “disoriented” and slurring his speech.
Richmond was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the single-car accident, which left his convertible totaled. A police report said he was going to be “held for further medical evaluation” and that he had a “suspected serious injury.”
Richmond’s son also complained of pain along his waistline, and was in stable condition, the report said.
It does not appear the New Orleans police officer who investigated the wreck, Mark Miranda, asked Richmond if he had been drinking.
Miranda’s report says he “did not detect an odor of alcoholic beverage” coming from the former congressman. As a result, New Orleans police spokesperson Devona Dolliole said, “there was no reasonable suspicion of intoxication nor probable cause to conduct tests for impairment,” or to even ask about it.
Richmond, who now works for the Democratic National Committee after a stint as an adviser to President Joe Biden, declined to discuss the incident in brief interviews with The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV. He did not respond to questions the news organizations sent him by text.
A collapse in enforcement
Several former police officers who reviewed the investigation at the request of the news organizations said they had questions about how the matter was handled.
But they also noted that the accident occurred at a time when the depleted department has essentially given up on enforcing drunk-driving laws, except when there are fatalities or grave injuries.
New Orleans police cited just 207 drivers for DWI last year, down from 1,564 in 2011, according to information the NOPD provided in January. That works out to a drop in arrests of 87% in just over a decade. The frequency of such arrests has remained equally low in 2023.
The collapse in enforcement comes as serious DWI wrecks are increasing. Last year, the city saw roughly 1,000 accidents with fatalities or serious injuries in which alcohol was believed to be a factor.
The failure to test Richmond occurred despite a state law that says that drivers “shall” be tested for intoxication in cases where a citation is “imminent” and the wreck has resulted in a “suspected serious injury.”
The latter condition was met, according to Miranda’s report. But the officer ultimately opted not to cite Richmond, partly because of a statement given by Richmond’s son that Miranda debunked.
Richmond’s son told the officer the accident occurred after an orange Corvette swerved in front of them. The child also told Miranda he thought the road was wet.
Miranda’s report, however, says the pavement was dry. Miranda also reviewed footage from nearby crime cameras before completing his report and noted that he saw no evidence of a speeding Corvette at the time of the crash.
The news organizations reviewed the same footage and saw no other car in the vicinity when Richmond crashed.
Miranda ultimately chalked up the former congressman’s disorientation and slurred speech to injuries from the wreck and the deployment of the car’s airbag.
The city provided body-camera footage from Miranda and a second officer, but deleted any footage in which Richmond could be seen, citing the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The city did provide a short snippet of audio in which Miranda sought to question a clearly dazed Richmond.
'Acute political emergencies'
Anthony Radosti, the retired vice president of the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission and a former NOPD officer, said he found it puzzling that Miranda listed the son’s account as a key reason for not citing Richmond.
“He’s using a debunked statement to justify not writing a citation,” Radosti said.
Radosti said it’s important for police to handle incidents involving prominent figures by the book so as to avoid losing public confidence.
Authorities knew immediately that Richmond was involved in the wreck. One of the three people to call 911 identified Richmond by name, recordings show.
Dolliole, the police spokesperson, said that Miranda alerted his supervisor, Lt. Salvatore Carona, about the wreck. She did not answer a question about whether Carona notified others.
Like Radosti, Tim Lentz, the former chief of the Covington Police Department, was surprised that a serious wreck involving a high-profile official apparently set off few alarms.
“We used to call these ‘APEs’ -- acute political emergencies,” Lentz said. “The officer in a case like this needs some guidance to make sure these kinds of mistakes don’t happen.
Miranda went to the hospital to try to interview Richmond about the accident, according to his report. But he wrote that Richmond was still “in a dazed, disoriented state” and said he could not remember details about the crash.
By then, however, Miranda “no longer noted slurred speech” on Richmond’s part, according to the report. The time of the observation was not noted.
Former NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas, now a professor of criminal justice at Loyola University, said that Miranda’s decision not to call for testing at the hospital may have been reasonable given that he didn’t smell alcohol on Richmond.
“It doesn’t look like he objectively did anything wrong,” he said. “By and large, this doesn’t jump off the page as a coverup.”
Serpas added, however, that he believes the NOPD should conduct an internal probe to make sure the crash investigation was handled properly.
Editor's note: This story was updated June 9 to include corrected information provided by the NOPD about 2022 DWI arrests. It was updated again Aug. 9 when the department provided corrected information for earlier years.