By Brendan McCarthy
Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — One by one, more than 50 law enforcement officers stood in front of a grateful audience Tuesday morning while New Orleans police officials lauded their work.
Some had dodged bullets or saved lives. Some had snared caches of guns and drugs or apprehended criminals. Some had suffered greatly for their work, suffering a gunshot wound to the arm or bullets to the body.
All had been courageous in exceptional ways, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said.
Riley and other top cops honored about 50 NOPD officers and a handful of deputies from other agencies in a ceremony at the Municipal Training Academy.
Twenty-eight “medals of merit” were awarded to officers who went “beyond the call of duty” while facing the threat of great harm. Police officials also honored 25 officers with “medals of commendation” for exceptional work. Three officers were awarded purple heart medals.
Two NOPD officers, Miquel Aubert and Aaron Wiltz, were awarded lifesaving medals. The officers talked to and apprehended a suicidal woman who was pacing on the edge of a church roof, said Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo.
Such an awards ceremony was last held in late 2005.
In addition to the NOPD personnel, officials honored four Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies, as well as a Orleans Parish criminal sheriff’s deputy, a member of the Louisiana National Guard and a Louisiana Probation and Parole officer.
A few officers were honored in several categories. NOPD Sgt. Dan Anderson had arrested gunmen in several high-risk situations. Aubert received a medal of merit and a lifesaving award.
Police awarded officer Chad Perez with a purple heart medal and a lifesaving award. He helped pull his partner from an overturned vehicle after a car chase. Perez also last year subdued a gunman who had hid under a house and assaulted a police dog.
NOPD officials had fired Perez from the force in September after he was accused of using a Taser and excessive force in transporting a man to jail after a traffic stop. Perez filed an appeal with the city’s Civil Service Commission and the NOPD reversed course last month, reaching an amicable settlement with Perez, according to the commission. Returned to the force, Perez is now a 2nd District patrolman.
The loudest cheers of the ceremony were for officer Andres “Chico” Gonzalez and his former partner, officer Rebecca Easley. Gonzalez was shot while on duty in May 2006 and is paralyzed, confined to a motorized wheelchair. He and Easley were honored with merit medals.
Riley made brief remarks, thanking the officers and their families.
“People can say negative things,” Riley noted, “but this department is as good as any police department in this country.”
At the end of the ceremony, two NOPD officers and an Amtrak train police officer were noted for their work at the city’s train station. All told, Sgt. Kevin Guillot, Detective Harry Stovall and Amtrak officer Raymond Del Valle arrested 19 people and seized an array of drugs valued at $1.3 million, police said.
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