- Police Brutality Watch

Originally published in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) February 23, 2005

Copyright 2005 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company

By Paul Rioux, St. Tammany bureau

A former New Orleans police officer convicted and then exonerated of negligent homicide in a high-profile 1992 police-brutality case has been arrested after he allegedly pulled a gun on a motorcyclist and claimed to be a police officer during a road-rage incident in St. Tammany Parish, authorities said.

Kevin Fenner, 47, of Madisonville, was booked Feb. 11 on a warrant for aggravated assault and impersonating a police officer in connection with an incident last month in Goodbee.

Fenner was fired by the New Orleans Police Department after he was convicted of negligent homicide in the 1992 shooting death of an 18-year-old man in eastern New Orleans, a case that sparked protests and fueled complaints about police brutality against young black men.

The conviction was overturned on appeal, but Fenner, who works as a funeral director in Covington, never rejoined the police force.

On Jan. 9, Fenner confronted Seth Crane, 21, of Madisonville, who had passed Fenner’s car on a motorcycle and stopped at the Goodbee Quick Stop on U.S. 190, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman James Hartman said.

Fenner allegedly identified himself as a police officer and pointed a revolver at Crane, ordering him to kneel on the ground. He then berated Crane for his driving and demanded to see his license and registration, Hartman said.

"He told him to slow down and that he ought to be ashamed of himself," Hartman said. "Then he left after telling him not to let it happen again."

Crane jotted down the license plate number of Fenner’s green Toyota Corolla and called the Sheriff’s Office the next day.

Deputies obtained an arrest warrant for Fenner after two witnesses confirmed Crane’s account of the incident.

Fenner, who did not return a call seeking comment, told detectives he did not wield a gun or identify himself as a police officer. He said he confronted Crane because his motorcycle kicked up rocks as it zoomed past him in the same lane and nearly forced his car into a ditch, Hartman said.

Crane told detectives he passed Fenner’s car after Fenner pulled in front of him.

Fenner turned himself in at the parish jail in Covington on Feb. 11. He was released the same day after his employer, E. J. Fielding Funeral Home, posted a $27,500 bond, Hartman said.

Fenner had been a New Orleans police officer for five years when he fatally wounded Vergil Braud with a single shot to the chest Oct. 5, 1992, while trying to arrest him for cocaine possession.

Fenner said he pulled the trigger as Braud lunged for his partner’s gun. But witnesses said Fenner shot Braud as he tried to run away.

A state judge convicted Fenner of negligent homicide after a trial in November 1993. Fenner was fired and sentenced to two years probation, but a state appeals court overturned the conviction in 1995, saying Fenner had acted properly to protect himself and his partner.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Braud’s child ignited a controversy at City Hall when outgoing Mayor Sidney Barthelemy approved a $1.2 million settlement in May 1994, just hours beforeMarc Morial was sworn in as mayor.

A judge nullified the settlement later that year after Morial petitioned the court, saying it smacked of a last-minute sweetheart deal between Barthelemy and the plaintiff’s attorney, a longtime friend of Barthelemy.

In 1996, a federal jury found that Fenner and the Police Department were not liable for Braud’s death in a $16 million suit.