NEW ORLEANS — A relieved Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said he was getting back to work and in fact prosecuting a trial in criminal court Monday, three days since he was found not guilty in a tax case that could have cost him his job and his law license.
“I’m excited to get back to fight for the people of our city,” Williams told a press gathering at which he didn’t take any questions. “Our city is in dire straits.”
Williams said he now knows how people on the other side of the courtroom feel as they wait for their fate to be decided.
“I have personally felt the pain, fear, isolation and disorientation of the abuse of power, the abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” he said.
Williams had long said the prosecution was politically motivated, and it cost his former business partner, Nicole Burdett, who was found guilty on four counts of tax problems and is facing jail and the possible loss of her law license.
“(She) was convicted of crimes she did not commit,” he said. “She paid a dear cost for her integrity.”
The jury took 16 hours of deliberations over three days to reach its verdict.
“He’s been exonerated that’s why we have these trials and that’s why we have juries of his peers and I think he can move on," Loyola University law professor Bill Neilson said.
Burdett is set to be sentenced on Sept. 30, but what’s next for her?
“I think they’re going to sentence her to jail then she’s going to be on probation and the IRS is also going to pursue her for the civil aspects of this case," Neilson said.
Professor Neilson says it will be very difficult for Burdett to appeal. Her conviction means she can no longer practice law in the state of Louisiana. After her sentence, she can re-apply for her license, but it’ll be difficult to get back in.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.