judge porteous' relationship with bail bondsman lewis marcotte and his sister laurie marcotte that mr schiff discussed. for that, it is necessary to return to judge porteous' roots as a state court judge. first, let me take a second to describe how the bail bonds business worked in new orleans. and why judge porteous' action physical setting bonds was so financially significant to the marcottes. this is somewhat detailed and i have tried to distill it to its essentials. a bail bond is basically an insurance policy. the prisoner pays the premium, typically 10% of the amount of the bail bond to the bail bondsman and the bail bondsman promises the court that the prisoner will show up when he is required. so if a bond is set at $50,000, a prisoner would pay the bail bondsman $5,000. lewis marcotte the bail bondsman would testify that he would make no money if the bond was set so high that the prisoner could not afford the premium. or too low so that the premium would be an insignificant sum. what marcotte really wanted was for a bond to be set at the maximum amount for which the prisoner

the evidence is clear that that laurie marcotte later paid for both louis marcotte and laura marcotte testified the payment t wasn't has to consider the fact that theess marcottes had paid g the trade. there is no pretense this was i somemp sort of legitimate act or generosity. it was obviously improper in hin by the parties for that reason. e' return, judge porteouscott tlllingly became marcotte's gomc to judge for sending bonds. rnd mark i wented directly to judge porteous with recommended bondn. amount.ju ondge the mouth to maximize thed income. judge porteous was receptive to them and find countless aunts at request. they would go to his chambers and tell them how much the c prisonerou could afford as parte the s discussions where they requested that he said bill.the as senator risch observed during the trial, he was really the por poorest families who were heard by judge porteous relationship with marcotte. aspec an inherent aspect of theirspect corrupt dealings was that bonds would be set at a higher amounts than might have been set by avet mutual judge who is not on the e take.

as laurie marcotte described quote, state court judges wouldges you assess trusted peoplerusted because we were hanging around with a federal judge.udge thus judge porteous used the power and prestige of his officee as a f as a federal judge to helpand marcottes expand their corrupt influence in the gretna courthouse by vouching for theirg f honesty, vaulting for theirheir practices and helping to recruitng to a successor. our our post trial brief details details several instances of judgessistanc e porteous' providing assistance to the marcottes as a federal t me t judge. let me talk about one of those instances in particular. ret, j ud in 1999 at louis marcotte'snewly request judge porteous spoke to the newly e. elected judgeo that ronald bodenheimer. prior to that conversation, fro lo bodenheimer stayedui away from co louis marconctte because he had aracte concerns about marcotte's character and believed marcotte was doing drugs. during his conversation with jge bodenheimer, judge porteous wrote for louis marcotte's bodenheimer too integrity.k st bodenheimer tuck judge porteous'boden

. >> was your sister laurie marcotte friends with rhonda? >> yes, they were friends. >> they would socialize with each other? >> yes, they would. >> go on trips together? >> yes, sir. and isn't it true that sometimes that danos would handle, help you with social events? >> yes, he would. >> including planning trips in vegas for example? >> yes. >> connie used her as an administrator for the overflow. >> sort of like a side job of hers? >> i wouldn't call it a job, but just you know, make arrangements. >> did you previously testified that she actually did work like this, planning as a separate job? did she often do that? >> i don't remember. >> was and she associated? >> i thought she was associated with the casinos and did stuff like that plus she had another job doing that. >> okay. i want to make sure, you had testified earlier that bail bondsman limited did have some bonds he had in federal court, correct? >> very few because they mainly took cash deposits. i mean we probably wrote to her three and a year. >> but judge porteous never exec

federal judge had a corrupt relationship with local bail bondsman louis marcotte and his sister laurie marcotte. judge porteous would take official acts to financially benefit the marcottes by setting bail at amounts they requested to maximize their profit, not on the best interest of the public, not what was necessary to secure the defendant's appearance in court. but would maximize their profit. and in addition, he would set aside the criminal convictions of the marcottes' employees. the way the bond arrangement worked was this. louis marcotte would interview the defendant and their family to figure out the most expensive bond they could possibly afford and would ask judge porteous to set the bond at precisely this amount. and the judge would do so. if the bond was set too low, below what the family could afford, marcotte would lose money. if the bond was set too high, then the defendant couldn't use marcotte at all and marcotte would lose money. it had to be set just right to maximize their profit and judge porteous was their go-to bond setter. while other judges would go to jail for precise

and with respect to the marcotte, lewis and his sister, laurie, the evidence will show a similar pattern, more than that, doing repairs on the judge's car, doing repairs of the judge's home, and for his part, the evidence will show judge porteous set bonds in a manner that would maximize profits to lois marcotte and his company. and what a judge's priority in setting the bond would be to ensure the court. the evidence will show here that the marcotte's asked for bonds the would be announced would benefit him, mr. marcotte. and that the judge was more than willing to comply and the judge did more for louis marcotte. on two separate occasions, he was asked by mr. marcotte to expunge the convictions of employees of the billboard business who could no longer work, no one could be licensed to work in the business because of their convictions. so lewis marcotte goes to the judge and civil you expunge the condition first of a guy named jeff and the judge does it and leader of another bill on the employee, aubrey wallace and the judge explains that too. these were two of the bill of employees do