Ex-NOPD cop gets probation after guilty plea in Mid-City bar attack

Cover Image

John Galman, who was fired from the New Orleans Police Department after being charged in an attack on an Hispanic man outside a Mid-City bar last year, received one year of probation and was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution by a municipal court judge today.

The New Orleans Advocate reports Judge Robert Jones III also fined Galman $500 and warned him that he could spend a month in jail if he can't fulfill the obligations of his probation.
Prosecutors say Galman (left) and Spencer Sutton, another police officer, assaulted Jorge Alberto "George" Gomez, a U.S. military veteran, outside the Mid-City Yacht Club in July. Gomez says the two asked him if he was an American before the attack.

Gomez is a native-born American citizen, but was raised in Honduras and speaks with an accent. He served in the Army National Guard.

Investigators looked into the possibility that Gomez was targeted because of his ethnicity, which would allowed prosecutors to pursue the case as a hate crime, but ultimately those charges were not filed.

Sutton, who has also since been fired from the NOPD, awaits trial in municipal court.

Click here to read more in The New Orleans Advocate.