A criminal investigation of the police blockade that kept hundreds from crossing the Mississippi River to safety after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans will delay trial in at least one civil lawsuit until January 2009 -- more than three years after the storm.

District Attorney Eddie Jordan announced the criminal probe in August 2006 and there is no indication when it will end. Until it does, Gretna police officers who blocked people at the far side of the Crescent City Connection bridge cannot make the sworn statements needed for the victims to prepare their cases, attorneys for Tracy Dickerson wrote in an unopposed request for more time in their federal court lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon recently rescheduled Dickerson's case from Jan. 3, 2008, to Jan. 20, 2009.

The storm hit Aug. 29, 2005, flooding 80 percent of the city.

Thousands were stranded at the Louisiana Superdome and Morial Convention Center with no power, and short supplies of food and water. There were widespread reports of violence and looting.

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson has acknowledged that his officers fired shots into the air during the blockade in an attempt to quell what he described as unrest among the evacuees. Lawson and other suburban New Orleans law enforcement agencies have said the blockade was needed to keep order because their jurisdictions were also heavily damaged and shelters and emergency agencies were under tremendous stress.

Lemmon is also overseeing three other cases filed by people held back during the bridge blockade. Delays are likely in those cases as well, attorneys said when told Wednesday why the Dickerson case was being delayed.

"I guess that applies to everyone," said Julian G. Baudier Jr. He represents the family of Venita Ballet in a lawsuit against Gretna police and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Thomas Milliner, who represents another family prevented from walking to Algiers so they could get to cars at their house, said, "That makes perfect sense. As long as there's a criminal investigation, these officials are not going to give a deposition in a civil matter."

Ballet, a social worker assigned to help evacuees at the Louisiana Superdome, and her husband and teenage daughter were kept from crossing the river when they tried to get to their car on the other side, in the section of New Orleans called Algiers.

Milliner's clients, Cynthia Cantwell and her family, also wanted to get to cars left at their house in Algiers.

Dickerson's attorneys also sought a delay because still another group of storm victims, led by Nina Alexander, is seeking class-action status for their suit. That determination could be made after a Nov. 14 hearing, attorney Robert Schmolke wrote in court documents.

If Alexander's suit is made a class action, he wrote, Dickerson and her mother, Dorothy Dickerson may join that class rather than continue on their own.

It is unclear when Jordan's probe will be completed. "We will be presenting facts to the grand jury in the next few weeks in that case," spokesman Dalton Savwoir said Wednesday.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)