Man beaten bloody by New Orleans police pleads not guilty

A 64-year-old man beaten bloody by New Orleans police over the weekend pleaded not guilty Wednesday to public drunkenness and resisting arrest and was released on his own recognisance.
The judge ordered Robert Davis to return to court in January for trial proceedings.
The officers who pummelled Davis into custody have been suspended from their jobs and criminally charged with battery. They would be considered vital witnesses in a criminal case against Davis, but their credibility has been called into question by the charges against them.
The officers have pleaded innocent to the charges against them, and a trial date was also set for January. Davis, a retired teacher, has publicly denied he was drinking alcohol the night of his arrest and said he did nothing to provoke the beating that ended with him bloodied and handcuffed on a sidewalk.
"I'm talking in a nice, cordial way to a black officer on a horse," Davis said in an interview Tuesday. "All of a sudden, the white officer hit me in the eye and dazed me and threw me up against the wall."
A white officer yelled, "I'm going to kick your ass," Davis recounted, saying he was pummelled to the sidewalk, face down.
Davis's blood-red left eye was swollen and his face battered.
The beating of Davis on Bourbon Street Saturday was captured by a television news camera crew and has been broadcast repeatedly across the United States. On Tuesday, US federal officials launched a civil rights probe of the beating.
New Orleans police, saddled with a reputation for desertion, corruption and thuggery, are now fending off accusations of racist brutality.
The thrashing of the retired teacher by white officers in the French Quarter over the weekend was the latest black eye for a department already reeling from blows to its integrity.
Approximately 250 police officers, nearly 15 percent of the department, are being investigated for apparently deserting their posts in the tumult of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the city on August 29.
Another probe has been launched to determine why officers took luxury cars, including two vintage automobiles, from a Cadillac dealership in New Orleans in the lawless wake of the storm.
Officers have been accused of ignoring reports of rape and other savagery at a shelter for refugees in the city's Superdome.
Police have also been accused of making sport of shooting dogs that residents were forced to leave behind while escaping the then-flooded city.
The city's police superintendent resigned amid the criticism of his department. He was replaced by veteran cop Warren Riley, who has staunchly defended his officers' honour.