From [HERE] and [HERE] NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans police officer savagely beat a 48-year-old handyman, Raymond Robair, to death for no reason, breaking four ribs and crushing his spleen before he and his partner concocted a story to conceal the crime, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the start of a trial for the two officers. "At the heart of this case is a flagrant abuse of power, an abuse of power that cost a man his life," Justice Department attorney Jared Fishman told jurors.

In the second civil rights case involving New Orleans police to go to trial in less than six months, prosecutor Jared Fishman told jurors they will hear from civilian witnesses who saw officer Melvin Williams kick Robair and beat him with a police baton. They will also hear from nurses and doctors at Charity Hospital who will explain that, had they known that Robair had suffered significant trauma, they would have taken different measures to treat him. Instead, he died of internal bleeding that they had no idea was occurring.

The officers dropped him off at a hospital, claiming Robair was a "known drug user" they had found under a bridge, according to Fishman. "They didn't tell anyone this man was beaten," he said. "Those lies cost Raymond Robair his life."