Jurist, Politician Cassibry Dies At 77 Public Career Lasted 40 Years Times Picayune 07-8-1996 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Fred Cassibry, a politician, jurist and gambling regulator with a reputation as a persistent voice of dissent who never backed down from a fight, died Saturday at Touro Infirmary of a heart attack. He was 77. Throughout more than 40 years in public life, including two terms on the New Orleans City Council, a quarter century as a state and federal judge and most recently as a member of the state agency that oversaw the Harrah's casino, Mr. Cassibry often found himself bucking the establishment. "He epitomized what a public official ought to be - always calling it the way he saw it," said U.S. District Judge Adrian Duplantier, who served for 16 years on the federal bench with Mr. Cassibry. "He was willing to speak out even though it might not have been in his best interest personally. For Fred, the interests of the people always came first." In the months leading up to the May 1995 opening of the now-bankrupt New Orleans land casino, Mr. Cassibry emerged as the toughest critic of the casino operator, Harrah's Jazz Co. Mr. Cassibry bitterly opposed the casino board's decision to give Bally Gaming Inc. a license to sell gambling machines and computer equipment to Harrah's, citing evidence that Bally had been associated with organized crime figures. With the casino struggling financially throughout its six months in operation, Mr. Cassibry was derided by Harrah's officials in November for questioning whether the company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. But two weeks later, the casino shut down and launched bankruptcy proceedings that remain unresolved. "He had integrity and he had guts," said William Nungesser, whom Mr. Cassibry replaced on the casino board as a thorn in the side of Harrah's. "They (casino interests) couldn't back him down even though the odds were always stacked against him.' "The judge was the kind of guy you like to have watching your back. And in politics, there aren't many like him left." Born in tiny D'lo, Miss., Mr. Cassibry moved to New Orleans in 1937 after graduating from Gulfport High School. He attended Tulane University on an athletic scholarship and went on to letter in baseball, basketball and football, where he was a star halfback on the 1939 Green Wave team, the last to go unbeaten in the regular season and the last to play in the Sugar Bowl. After graduating with a history degree in 1941, Mr. Cassibry got his law degree from Tulane two years later. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific Theater. After the war, Mr. Cassibry made a name for himself as a local labor lawyer. With organized labor's backing, he won a seat on the City Council in 1953. It didn't take him long to lock horns with Chep Morrison, the city's popular mayor. With little support from his colleagues, Mr. Cassibry fought Morrison for an investigation of the scandal-ridden Police Department, which was later found to have an organized system of payoffs from illegal lottery operators, horse- racing bookies and houses of prostitution. In a recent interview, Mr. Cassibry recalled how he was criticized at the time for discussing what he called the police chief's "intimate relationship" with whorehouse madams. "He sued me," Mr. Cassibry said. "But when I called him for a deposition, he dropped the suit." After he was elected to a Civil District Court judgeship in 1960, Mr. Cassibry continued to make waves, warning lawyers who tried to talk with him about cases they had in his court. "When they called me, I told them if they mentioned the name of the suit, I was going to go over and beat hell out of them," he said. "They stopped calling." An ardent Democrat, Mr. Cassibry was named a federal judge in 1966 by President Johnson. Ten years later, he thrust himself into another battle, becoming the only Louisiana judge to join dozens of other federal judges who filed suit to force Congress to raise their pay. Mr. Cassibry became a national spokesman for the judges, who were roundly criticized by their colleagues, including Warren Burger, then chief justice of the Supreme Court. The judges ultimately won the case and received a $13,000 raise and $13,000 in back pay. In 1981, Mr. Cassibry helped establish the Federal Judges Association, which now numbers more than 700 members. During his two decades on the federal bench, Mr. Cassibry presided over several big trials, including a fraud case against state Senate President Michael O'Keefe of New Orleans. He sentenced O'Keefe to 16 months in prison. After retiring in 1987, Mr. Cassibry returned to practicing law, in a firm that included Dutch Morial. He returned to public office in 1995, when Gov. Edwin Edwards appointed him to the casino board, which disbanded following the Harrah's bankruptcy. Mr. Cassibry suffered from a nerve and muscle disease called myasthenia gravis, but he controlled it with medication. The heart attack that took his life came as he was recuperating from back surgery. Survivors include his wife, Muriel Drude Cassibry; two daughters, Libby Cassibry Smith and Cathryn Cassibry; three stepsons, Roland, Lance and Roger Belsome; and six grandchildren. Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd., is in charge of arrangements, which were incomplete Sunday.