Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has settled a group of federal civil rights cases related to a New Orleans police officer's fatal shooting of Henry Glover and the burning of his body four days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city in 2005.

The settlements, confirmed by attorneys for five of the Glover plaintiffs, follow similar agreements last month in lawsuits stemming from the Danziger Bridge shootings, which happened two days after Glover was killed. 

The specific terms of the agreements remained under wraps Wednesday.

Among the plaintiffs agreeing to settlements this week were at least three of Glover's children; his brother, Edward King; and his brother-in-law, Bernard Calloway.

Calloway was with Glover on Sept. 2, 2005, when a rookie NOPD officer, David Warren, fired a single rifle shot at Glover, a 31-year-old father of five, from a second-floor landing at the Algiers strip mall where Warren was guarding a police substation.

Calloway and Glover's brother flagged down a passerby, William Tanner, who sped Glover to an emergency outpost set up at Habans Elementary School. There, Calloway and King alleged, they were detained and beaten by officers with their fists and rifle butts.

Another cop, Gregory McRae, drove Tanner's Chevy Malibu to a levee with Glover's body in the back, torched it with a road flare and then fired into the car to ensure it ignited.

Of the five officers who went to trial, including three who were found guilty by a jury, only McRae remains convicted and imprisoned, serving a nearly 12-year sentence.

Warren, whose initial conviction was tossed out by an appeals court, was acquitted three years ago in a retrial.

The civil suits in both the Glover and Danziger cases had remained dormant pending the final outcome of the criminal proceedings, which were resolved this year in both cases.

In the Danziger case, five convicted officers who were granted new trials pleaded guilty last spring. In the Glover case, a federal judge resentenced McRae in February, following a federal appeals court's decision to drop a second of four counts against him.

Negotiations with the city moved quickly after the plaintiffs in both cases reopened their civil rights suits this year, the attorneys said.

Calloway's attorney, Mimi Van Horn, and Edwin Shorty, who represented several plaintiffs in both cases, said the city appeared eager to reach agreements and avoid the specter of a civil trial that would revisit a sordid chapter in the history of New Orleans and its long-maligned police force.

Several officers also were named as defendants in the lawsuits. The agreements reached with the city appear to resolve the claims against them as well.

"The city came into it with the right sentiment and the right heart. We came in the same way, and we are pleased with the results," Van Horn said. "As soon as the case was (reopened), they were open to resolving it and not putting the victims and the police officers, or the city, in more pain."

A spokesman for Landrieu's office declined to comment on the deals.

Shorty, who represents three of Glover's children and King, said his clients also were satisfied with the outcome.

"My clients' claims are resolved," he said. "For the Danziger folks and the Glover folks, everybody is happy to have this long saga over with. I think it's good for the city and it's good for them."

Last month, the city reached settlements, also undisclosed, with several victims in the Danziger Bridge shootings.

Among them were the mother of slain 17-year-old James Brissette; Jose Holmes Jr., who was permanently disfigured by two gunshots in the abdomen; and three family members who also were shot, Susan Bartholomew, Leonard Bartholomew and Lesha Bartholomew.

Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old developmentally disabled man, was killed in the onslaught of police gunfire after several officers, responding to a report of an officer in trouble, spilled out of a commandeered U-Haul truck and opened fire on the unarmed group.

Attorney Mary Howell, who represents Madison's family members — including Lance Madison, who was thrown in jail on bogus charges as part of an elaborate cover-up — has not confirmed similar deals with them.

In yet another police misconduct case, the city in July quietly settled a decade-old federal lawsuit filed by two sisters of Raymond Robair, a 48-year-old handyman who was fatally beaten by police in Treme on July 30, 2005, a month before the storm.

The Landrieu administration recently rebuffed a public records request from The New Orleans Advocate seeking the financial terms of the deal with Robair's sisters, Judonna Mitchell and LaShonda Saulsberry. The city cited a sealed court settlement in claiming the information is not public.

Landrieu is expected to hold a news conference in coming weeks to announce the various agreements.

The mayor had been pushing to settle the federal lawsuits stemming from the episodes of police violence in 2005 by year's end. Landrieu recently said that if settlements were reached quickly, he could tap a $20 million pot of money — split between the current budget year and 2017 — earmarked to pay off a slew of unpaid civil judgments.

Follow John Simerman on Twitter, @johnsimerman.

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