In an order upending one of the region's most important civil rights cases in years, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt granted a new trial for five former New Orleans Police Department officers convicted in the Danziger Bridge shooting and the subsequent cover-up. From left: Robert Faulcon Jr., Robert Gisevius Jr., Kenneth Bowen,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2007 file photo, people make their way over the Danziger Bridge and into the Lower 9th Ward section of New Orleans during a Hurricane Katrina remembrance march, two years after... (Associated Press) 
 
 But a judge threw out those convictions Tuesday and ordered a new trial for the officers, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct." Romell Madison, whose mentally disabled brother, Ronald, was one of two unarmed people gunned down on the Danziger Bridge, said the family is "extremely disappointed" and urged the Justice Department to appeal the judge's ruling. Judge Englehardt suggested that the discovery of Ms. Dobinski’s commentary was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” 
 
 In a statement, a Justice Department spokeswoman expressed disappointment with the ruling, saying that the department was reviewing the decision and considering the options. “This is the most dramatic danger sign that we’ve had come along.” 
 
 In a statement, Dr. Romell Madison, the brother of Ronald and Lance, urged the Justice Department to appeal. We urge the Department of Justice to appeal Judge Engelhardt's decision," Dr. Madison said in a statement. The Justice Department must carry on that fight -- and must make sure everything is done properly this time. While a scandal over anonymous online commenting had already cut short the federal careers of two local prosecutors and the United States attorney himself, Tuesday’s decision identified another, previously unknown commenter: a veteran lawyer in the Department of Justice in Washington who had a role in preparing the case for trial. The order also cited testimony by Mann that she told then-U.S. Attorney Jim Letten that she had posted online comments, shortly after the scandal over Perricone's posts began in March 2012. “Unfortunately though the focus has shifted from the accused to the accusers, it has continued to be about those very issues.” 
 
 The vacating of the 2011 convictions, which were hailed by the city’s officials and by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., was another setback for a wide-ranging federal campaign to reform the New Orleans Police Department and hold some of its officers accountable for past abuse. After a jury convicted five other former officers in 2011, their attorneys argued that prosecutors' online comments and leaks to news organizations were part of a "secret public relations campaign" that deprived their clients of a fair trial. Former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten resigned in December 2012 after two of his top deputies _ Sal Perricone and Jan Mann _ acknowledged they had posted anonymous comments on nola.com, The Times-Picayune's companion website, about cases their office had handled, including the Danziger Bridge investigation. After Mr. Letten’s resignation, the Justice Department announced that John A. Horn, a federal prosecutor from Georgia, would be investigating the office for misconduct relating to the commenting scandal. In addition, the ruling revealed that a U.S. Justice Department lawyer assigned to monitor the case made online comments under a pseudonym about the Danziger case. "It's rare to see a federal judge grant a new trial after verdicts of guilty and sentencing.
– In a month, the five former New Orleans police officers found guilty in the killing and subsequent cover-up of two people after Hurricane Katrina will learn when they go back on trial—unless the Justice Department gets involved. A judge yesterday threw out the men's 2011 convictions in the Danziger Bridge case, citing "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct" in a 129-page decision the New York Times calls "heated." Judge Kurt Engelhardt gave both sides a month to figure out their scheduling issues in advance of setting that new date—though the family of Ronald Madison, one of the men killed, has urged the DOJ to appeal the judge's decision, noting that it "re-opens this terrible wound not only for our family but our entire community." The Times-Picayune notes that the DOJ did release a statement yesterday indicating it was not happy with the ruling; it's reviewing both the decision and its options, per a rep. The misconduct: Federal prosecutors in New Orleans and Washington made anonymous online comments about the case, both before and during the trial, on the Times-Picayune website, creating what the judge called a "prejudicial, poisonous atmosphere." (Sample: One lawyer commented that the police department was "corrupt," "ineffectual," and "a joke.") The online comments were first revealed last year; the US attorney whose Louisiana office was involved stepped down, as did two local prosecutors who made comments. But yesterday, the judge revealed a previously unnamed commenter: a DOJ lawyer in Washington who helped ready the case for trial. In an article calling the judge's reversal a "bitter pill" for Katrina survivors, the Times-Picayune notes that none of the prosecutors involved ever addressed the jury.