N.O. prosecutor pays part of judgment

A day before he resigned, former New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan paid a fraction of the $3.7 million discrimination judgment against his office, an attorney said Friday.

Jordan’s office made a $300,000 payment on Monday, said Clement Donelon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, who are workers fired from the district attorney’s office.

The next day, Jordan cited the judgment as part of the reason he was leaving the office.

“It is a first payment. Hopefully not the last,” Donelon said.

Donelon said Monday’s payment doesn’t preclude a possible seizure of the office’s assets to settle the debt, but that Jordan deserves credit for making it.

“To me, it’s recognition of the enforceability of the judgment and an act of responsibility on his part,” he said.

The judgment is owed to 36 workers summarily fired by Jordan after he took office in 2003. Virtually all the workers are white and were replaced by black workers. Jordan, who is black, maintains race played no role in the firings.

Jordan, 55, had faced mounting criticism as high-profile cases fell apart and veteran prosecutors left. Long before the judgment threatened to bankrupt the office, charges were dropped and a backlog of criminal cases moved slowly through the courts.