Settlement avoids trial in 2011 Katrina trash lawsuit

NEW ORLEANS — A decade-old lawsuit over the awarding of waste disposal contracts following Hurricane Katrina has been settled, avoiding a Monday trial and ending the latest chapter in a story that added to corruption allegations against a convicted former New Orleans mayor and included a shakeup at a U.S. Attorney’s Office. In its 2011 lawsuit, Waste Management claimed, among other things, that illegal campaign contributions to former Mayor Ray Nagin prompted him to reverse his approval for the use of a Waste Management landfill. Nagin, who was convicted of corruption on unrelated matters, denied wrongdoing, as did the River Birch owners, Frederick Heebe and Albert Ward Jr. Nagin, 65, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 on multiple counts including wire fraud, money laundering and bribery. Released early in April 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Nagin has long denied allegations of corruption in his administration and he gave a deposition while imprisoned denying allegations in the River Birch lawsuit.