NEW ORLEANS -- A contraband investigation that entangled U.S. and District Attorney Eddie Jordan now appears to be pointing away from the former prosecutor, with evidence showing him emerging as a witness and not a defendant.
Jordan fell under investigation in the contraband case on June 14 when he handed an envelope to a client inside the Orleans Parish criminal courthouse on June 14. Hidden inside legal papers was tobacco and prescription pills.
But Jordan’s now-former client was rebooked Monday on a contraband charge, and an arrest warrant has been issued for his client’s girlfriend, who allegedly gave an envelope with the drugs to Jordan to give to the inmate, 22-year-old Nicholas McKnight.
Testing by the New Orleans Police Department determined that the pills were trazadone hydrochloride, an anti-depressant sometimes trafficked on the street under the name “sleep-easy.”
“He was basically duped into doing this,” said veteran defense attorney Craig Mordock, who is not representing Jordan. “It's really interesting how the table have turned in the past week to 10 days on a case like this.”
An arrest gist shows that a woman named Franchelle Ettamae Riles asked Jordan to give an envelope to McKnight. McKnight was in court facing an unrelated charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The sheriff’s office gist by lead investigator Daniel DeNoux also states that a recorded jailhouse telephone call revealed that McKnight and Riles discussed the plan to smuggle in the drugs, even more evidence pointing away from Jordan’s involvement.
“He (Jordan) probably didn't think anything of this until a sheriff inspected the envelope and found the drugs,” Mordock said.
Jordan proclaimed his innocence from the beginning. He dropped McKnight as a client the next day as authorities were still investigating his involvement with the handoff. He has since given a formal statement to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office.
Mordock said that without proving criminal intent, it would be almost impossible to prosecute Jordan.
“Eddie Jordan absolutely gave an envelope with drugs to an inmate. The question was what was in his mind, did he have that criminal intent?” Mordock said. “And as the facts have borne out, it's pretty clear he did not.”
The final decision on Jordan in this contraband case will be decided at Jordan’s old stomping grounds, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office.
But all signs point to him being cleared.