NEW ORLEANS - Former Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price is scheduled to report to federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas on Thursday.
Late Monday afternoon, Price's attorney, Ralph Whalen, filed for a 30-day postponement in federal court. Whalen is asking that Price not have to report to prison until after a heading to reconsider his sentence.
There has been no word on whether U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman will grant that postponement.
Back on June 17, Judge Feldman sentenced Price to 64 months in prison. Price briefly talked to reporters just a few minutes after learning his sentence. "Give me a couple of days to think about what happened," Price said on June 17. "I'll be glad to take any interview you want to have. But right now, I'm going home with my family, we're going to talk about what happened, and then I'll be in a better position to give you some more information."
Price has not done any interviews since then.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said at the time, the sentence sent "a powerful signal", and he praised the work of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
"It's going to be impossible to quantify how many public officials were scared straight by an Eddie Price-type of sentence," Rafael Goyeneche of the MCC said Monday. "There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that it has that effect on an untold number of public officials."
The United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth is now a medium security facility, with a minimum security facility next door. A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told Eyewitness News Monday, their goal is to send prisoners within 500 miles of their hometown. Leavenworth, Kansas is 676 miles from Mandeville, GoogleMaps estimates it to be more than a 14 hour drive.
The spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons also said, it is common practice to transfer prisoners mid-sentence to facilities closer to their home.
Friends of Price formed a non-profit group, and organized a fundraiser for Price's family, which was scheduled for Tuesday night.
Organizers now say, that fundraiser has been cancelled.
"I think they may be telling the news media that it's cancelled," longtime Mandeville resident Cheryl Porretto said. "I wouldn't trust that."
Porretto had helped organize a protest, to picket outside the fundraiser on the Mandeville lakefront.
"It's been very embarrassing to me, my family, my friends, to everyone that's been here since the early 60's or before or whatever," Porretto said. "It's been very embarrassing."
The non-profit group is called "The Alpha Plan, LLC". The two names listed on the flyer for the fundraiser are Jay Caserta and Mandeville City Councilman Jerry Coogan. "Jay Caserta's name was prominently named in the Louisiana Legislative Auditor Report," Goyeneche said. "That was a firm (Caserta's Land Clearing) that received contracts in the City of Mandeville that the City of Mandeville didn't follow bid laws with. You're seeing some of the people that have benefitted from their relationship with Mayor Price trying to do some things to now take care of Mayor Price."
As of close of business Monday, Judge Feldman had not ruled on Whalen's request for a postponement.
