Time is running out if federal prosecutors are going to bring charges against New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Or is it?
Allegations the mayor fired a public works deputy director in August 2019 in exchange for gifts imply the five-year statute of limitations for most federal crimes will be up next month. Loyola Law Professor Dane Ciolino says that does create some measure of pressure for investigators.
“The government doesn’t want to have to deal with motions to dismiss indictments due to untimely prosecutions,” he said.
But if an indictment doesn’t come to pass by that date, Ciolino says it’s not an all-clear for the mayor, either.
“Of course, the government never gives anybody a letter that pronounces them clean and free of any future indictment or prosecution,” Ciolino explained.
He said prosecutors work to find something a person did in relation to previous acts, that can re-set the five-year limit.