St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta was accused of playing a part in the alleged discrimination against African Americans wanting to rent property in St. Bernard after Hurricane Katrina, according to U.S. Department of Justice filings that would have been presented at trial this week. The civil case that was settled Friday (May 10) was the final saga in...
St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta was accused of playing a part in the alleged discrimination against African Americans wanting to rent property in St. Bernard after Hurricane Katrina, according to U.S. Department of Justice filings that would have been presented at trial this week. The civil case that was settled Friday (May 10) was the final saga in a long-running battle over post-Katrina fair housing practices in the parish.
In the weeks leading up to that last-minute settlement - the case had been set to start on Monday - there had been a legal fight between the Department of Justice and attorneys representing the parish over whether the jury should be allowed to hear evidence regarding Okechukwu Okafor.
Okafor, who owned the house next door to Peralta in Meraux, said in a sworn statement to Department of Justice lawyers that the parish came down hard on him after he rented the house to African-American tenants and that Peralta, at the time a ranking parish official, and others pressured him to evict his tenants. Peralta this week adamantly denied exerting such pressure and said that he hadn't even known at the time that Okafor was renting the property.
On May 7, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan ruled that the jury would be allowed to hear about Okafor's case.
U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan But the trial was averted when the parish agreed three days later to settle the whole case for more than $2.5 million, which included attorneys' fees. As a part of that settlement with the Department of Justice, the parish agreed to pay $275,000 directly to Okafor and seven other individuals identified in the Department of Justice's suit. Okafor will receive more than half of that total, $143,000.
The Okafor case
Peralta became parish president in 2012 after beating Craig Taffaro in a brutal campaign during which the fair housing suit was an issue. Taffaro, who authored the initial parish ordinance that severely limited rentals in the post-Katrina housing market, championed the parish's continued legal fight to defend its ordinances. As president, Peralta distanced himself from the fair housing battle, vowing to end a legal fight he said had been created before he came to power.
But the evidence the Department of Justice won the right to present during the trial sought to paint Peralta in a different light.
The Department of Justice's suit took aim at a parish ordinance that required property owners to obtain a parish permit before renting out single-family homes. The feds claimed the parish adopted the rule "with discriminatory intent'' to shut out African-American renters by limiting the supply of rental houses.
Before Katrina, St. Bernard was 86 percent white and 10 percent African American; the population of neighboring New Orleans was 29 percent white and 67 percent African American.
Among other requirements in St. Bernard, the permissive use permit - often referred to as a PUP - allowed only two rental permits for every 500 linear feet of frontage for most contiguous single-family dwellings.
In his sworn statement, Okafor said he purchased a home on Newport Street in Meraux's Lexington Place subdivision in March 2007 and began renting it out to two African-American tenants in January 2008.
On Feb. 11, 2008, the parish sent Okafor a "Notice of Violation" letter threatening civil and criminal penalties unless he evicted his tenants or obtained a PUP. A couple of weeks later, on Feb. 29, 2008, the parish shut off water service at the property by placing a lock on the home's water meter.
The Justice Department placed a check into evidence showing that Okafor had properly paid the bill.
On the same day that the parish locked out Okafor's water meter, Peralta and another neighbor, Alvin Beaubouef, each applied for PUPs to make their own homes possible rental properties. Eventually, the St. Bernard Parish Council, the approving agency, granted their requests. Peralta represented himself and Beaubouef before the council, but said he made it clear he was there in a personal, not professional, capacity.
Okafor later applied for a PUP but was denied because it would have violated the 500-foot rule, Department of Justice lawyers stated in their court filings.
Peralta said this week the timing of his permit request "was just coincidence" and that at the time, he did know that the lock had been placed on Okafor's water meter.
Peralta this week said he actually opposed the PUP ordinance but that he had applied for the permit "simply to avail myself of any or all opportunities." He said he never did rent his home.
Okafor arrested for water meter tampering
Before Okafor knew about his neighbors' PUP applications, he went to the parish Sewerage and Water Board and was told that the account was current and that there was no reason why the water should have been cut off, according to Okafor's sworn statement and Department of Justice filings.
Okafor advised his tenants to break the lock and turn their water back on.
On March 11, 2008, Okafor went to the parish government building in an attempt to resolve the matter but was advised that a warrant had been issued for his tenants' arrest.
When Okafor said it had been his idea to break the lock, the Sheriff's Office was notified and he was arrested and handcuffed.
Okafor, who is an American citizen of Nigerian descent, said in his statement that during processing at the Sheriff's Office, his American citizenship was questioned, as was the validity of his Social Security card.
He was booked with theft of utility services and criminal damage to government property and was released the next day on a $5,000 bond.
During a meeting with some parish officials after his release, Okafor claims that Peralta told him the charges would be dropped if he evicted the tenants from his rental properties, according to Department of Justice filings. In addition to the Newport property, Okafor had bought two other properties in early 2006 - all told, he'd spent about $300,000 on the three property renovations after Katrina, Okafor said in his sworn statement.
Okafor said he evicted his tenants and criminal charges were never brought against him.
Asked if he ever gave Okafor that ultimatum, Peralta this week replied, "Absolutely not. He can allege whatever he wants but I have never seen Okafor's statement," Peralta said.
He said that he had met with Okafor several times, both professionally in his capacity as the parish's chief administrative officer, and personally as his neighbor.
"He was an extremely nice gentlemen," Peralta said. "We spoke about the culture of Africa where he came from, and honestly, I was intrigued.
"He and I got along really well."
Beaubouef declined to comment this week on his PUP application.
But in a sworn statement submitted into evidence by the Department of Justice, Beaubouef discussed his own recollection of Okafor's property.
"I recall people hanging around 4412 Newport Street at the time it was being offered for rent," Beaubouef said in the statement. "They were not the kind of people you want hanging around; there were African Americans coming around the property with their pants around their knees."
In trying to convince Berrigan to not allow the jury to hear about the Okafor case, attorneys for the parish argued that it both provided little value in determining the outcome of the suit, and that it might confuse or unfairly prejudice the jury.
But Justice Department attorneys argued that Okafor's story demonstrated the chilling effect of the parish's housing ordinance.
"In particular, Mr. Okafor's experience is relevant to the United States' claim that the parish harassed, intimidated, and interfered with the rights of landlords, and by extension their tenants, in enforcing the PUP ordinance, because of race," the Department of Justice said in its filing.