A timing issue and a critical error in an investigative report may have killed an investigation into a former French Quarter police commander accused of having a sexual relationship with a subordinate.
According to a report by our partners at NOLA.com, the New Orleans Police Department has agreed to withdraw its suspension of Octavio Baldassaro.
The newspaper’s report says investigators discovered that officials in the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau wrote in their report about the case that they initially received a complaint about Baldassaro on January 4, 2020. However, investigators learned that emails to the PIB showed that officials in the bureau first received the complaints in August 2019.
Baldassaro’s attorney, Eric Hessler, claims highers-up in the PIB falsified the date in their report to meet the state’s 120-day time limit to investigate Baldassaro.
Hessler is now calling for an investigation into the PIB’s actions.
To read NOLA.com’s full report, click here.
