Criticism
As sheriff, Foti came under criticism for various questionable activities, including the use of inmates as a state labor force and operating a sailboat marina from which his office derives rental income. Foti also used his influence to promote Tulane University and its football program. In this instance, the issue for Orleans Parish residents to consider is whether it is proper for the criminal sheriff to use public funds to promote a private institution that pays no taxes.
Foti was also criticized for inmate abuse, such as denying routine medical care to inmates. In some cases, inmates died as a result—such as a diabetic who was denied insulin and an inmate who was refused medical care even though he was vomiting blood. http://www.lagop.com/documents/Foti.pdf
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, his office's main priority was prosecuting private citizens on behalf of the elderly that died in the storm. In one case involving Dr Anna Pou, who worked at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during the storm, Foti publicly stated that Dr. Pou had murdered several patients. In July 2007, Dr. Pou sued Foti, accusing him of playing politics with her life and the dead from Katrina. After a lengthy investigation, a grand jury declined to indict Pou. The charges have since been expunged, and the state of Louisiana will pay Dr. Pou's legal fees. Several lawmakers have apologized for the accusations against Pou. The failed prosecution of Dr Pou was an issue during Foti's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2007.
In a related story, the owners of a nursing home near Poydras filed a civil suit against Foti and other state officials for failing to evacuate nursing home residents during the storm.
Read more about this topic: Charles Foti
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“...I wasn’t at all prepared for the avalanche of criticism that overwhelmed me. You would have thought I had murdered someone, and perhaps I had, but only to give her successor a chance to live. It was a very sad business indeed to be made to feel that my success depended solely, or at least in large part, on a head of hair.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)
“Like speaks to like only; labor to labor, philosophy to philosophy, criticism to criticism, poetry to poetry. Literature speaks how much still to the past, how little to the future, how much to the East, how little to the West.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)