N.O. prosecutor caught on video using racial slur and talking about cocaine
Five months after the video was recorded, it was sent to the DA's office, but Walker McInturff, continued to prosecute cases. He was fired for a separate incident.
On June 22, 2023, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and his office were sent a cell phone video that appeared to show a prosecutor, Walker McInturff, in the front passenger seat of a car with two other people during his off hours.
Caught on camera
“I would like to do some coke. Do you want to do coke?” the man identified as McInturff says in the video clip.
At one point, the backseat passenger shooting the video refers to McInturff by his first name.
“Walker, you're a handful,” the passenger says.
“So let’s do some cocaine,” McInturff responds in the video. “I've got a bunch of money, let's do some cocaine.”
The man identified as McInturff even refers to the district attorney being his boss.
“Jason Williams. I work for Jason Williams because he's a good boss,” the man says.
WWL Louisiana obtained the meta-data from the original video, which shows it was shot on an iPhone just before 11 p.m. on January 22, 2023. The video does not show any cocaine — it only shows McInturff discussing it — and he has never been accused of a crime related to the episode.
But when WWL Louisiana showed the clip to John Fuller, one of the city's most prominent criminal defense attorneys, he had an instant reaction.
“I think it's horrible,” Fuller said, visibly recoiling as he watched the video clip.
Fuller has represented several defendants prosecuted by McInturff.
“I'm sorry if I appear a little agitated, but by the video, you just showed me, he’s doing anything but making the city safer, making this community safer, or cleaning it up,” Fuller said.
At the time, McInturff was a senior front-line prosecutor, accepting guilty pleas and trying defendants in several sections of criminal court.
Racial slur used
On June 5 last year, the DA's office even issued a press release praising prosecutor McInturff and for obtaining a conviction and five-year prison sentence for a man caught with cocaine and fentanyl along with a firearm.
There is another part of the video that was especially disturbing to Fuller, in which the man uses a racial slur.
“These n****s, they are not going to f*** with me. They're not going to f***ing f*** with me,” the man in the video says.
“That word is very offensive to many people and still has a deep emotional impact on many people,” Fuller said.
Not fired yet McInturr continues on cases
Five months after the video was recorded, it was sent to the DA's office. The office took quick swift action.
A June 29th, 2023, disciplinary letter received and signed by McInturff', which WWL Louisiana obtained through a public records request, begins: “ODPA leadership has elected not to proceed with termination.”
The letter goes on to list three conditions McInturff must meet to keep his job. One of the conditions is redacted, but the other two are one hour of “diversity/sensitivity training” and a promise to “refrain from conduct that could impair public confidence in or otherwise harm the reputation of the office.”
But McInturff returned and continued to prosecute cases.
“As one of the gatekeepers to the city,” Fuller said, “which means one of the things you're supposed to ensure is fairness, then as a district attorney, I don't know how you can unleash him in a courtroom in a majority black city.”
“As a lawyer, especially a prosecutor, he has to be held to a higher standard,” Fuller said.
McInturr fired
After continuing to handle cases for months, McInturff was fired on March 18 after another incident.
Although no official reasons were announced at the time, McInturff's termination letter states that the reason for the firing is “reports of unprofessional conduct after being previously counseled regarding the same.”
The DA's office declined to give additional information about the firing. Nor did the office address the video that led to McInturff's earlier reprimand.
While offensive, a prosecutor's use of a racial slur in private would not necessarily become an issue for either of the state’s two oversight agencies, according to Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino.
Ciolino, an expert in legal ethics, said a DWI arrest or potential use of an illegal substance, however, would be a concern to those agencies, the state Attorney Disciplinary Board and the Louisiana Bar Association.
“That certainly would raise red flags for the DA's office,” Ciolino said. “Often, if lawyers are suspected to have substance abuse issues, they are referred to the judges and lawyers’ assistance program.”
Such referrals are confidential and McInturff's employment records don’t reveal what steps were taken by the DA.
But there is a record of a previous DWI arrest of McInturff in his home state of Alabama in 2016 before he came to Louisiana to attend Tulane Law School. And that type of arrest, Ciolino said, is almost always reviewed by the state bar association even if the charge is dismissed, which is what happened in McInturff's DWI case.
“It does raise character and fitness flags with the Louisiana Supreme Court's committee on bar admissions,” Ciolino said.
WWL Louisiana went to McInturff's last known address in New Orleans in an attempt to contact him. We also called two phone numbers listed for him, including one local number that goes to a voice recording in which he still refers to himself as an assistant DA.
McInturff did not respond.
We sent the district attorney's office a list of questions, to which they responded with the following statement:
“We do not comment on personnel matters. Personnel issues often touch on sensitive personal struggles and protected categories of information. For this reason, these matters are treated as confidential, and we avoid perpetuating any gossip or speculation as to the circumstances of an employee's departure whether it be termination or resignation.”
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