I'm the closest thing there is to a king in the United States." It's one of Harry Lee's more famous quotes, and it came back to haunt him last week in federal court.

  Noting that Lee's quotation has appeared in the Boston Globe, the London Sunday Times and Gambit Weekly (Feb. 23, 1999, "The Last Emperor"), a civil rights attorney asked U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to hold Lee in contempt for failing to obey her longstanding court order to post a bond that would insure payment of a $368,000 police brutality judgment against one of his deputies. "This [court] is not his fiefdom," lawyer Maureen Jennings said of Lee.

  Lee was not present during the Valentine's Day contempt hearing. However, Lee attorney Franz Zibilich defended the sheriff, saying Lee left responsibility for appeals from the civil rights suit to himself and another attorney, who usually consulted Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office chief administrative officer Newell Norman, Lee's No. 2 man.

  Meanwhile, a visiting class of high school students sat in the courtroom audience, listening attentively as the two lawyers clashed over the unusual cop-on-cop brutality case civil rights case that began almost five years ago.

  On Oct. 11, 1996, Derrick Gerard Finister, a black Orleans Parish Sheriff's deputy, accused white JPSO deputies Gregory Floridi and Antonio Frere of beating him while shouting racial epithets during an altercation over a pay phone at the Mid-City intersection of Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway. All three men were off-duty at the time. Both Floridi and Frere were later convicted of simple battery on Finister after a trial by a New Orleans Criminal Court judge. (Finister is now living in Houston; Frere and Floridi are still working for Sheriff Lee.)

  Finister sued both JPSO deputies in federal court, but released the popular Sheriff Lee from the suit before the case went to a civil jury trial in August 1998. The jury eventually found Floridi not liable for any damages, but held Frere responsible for Finister's non-permanent injuries and several weeks that he missed from work at the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office and from classes at the University of New Orleans.

  The jury awarded Finister a total of $262,000: $12,000 for his physical injuries and $250,000 in punitive damages. The jury decided Frere was acting "under color of law," meaning in his capacity as a JPSO sheriff's deputy, when he punched his fellow lawman in the face.

  Finister's attorneys garnished Frere's wages. The JPSO deputy then sued Lee to force the sheriff to help satisfy the judgment.

  After a second civil trial before Judge Berrigan, a jury found in December 1999 that Lee violated Frere's federal constitutional rights to due process and held the sheriff liable for breech of state contract, by failing to pay the judgment against his deputy. The jury ordered Lee to pay $300,000 for the outstanding judgment. Zibilich appealed the jury award to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, which ultimately turned him down.

  As attorney fees mounted, Judge Berrigan last March ordered the sheriff to post a supersedeas bond by April 6 to effectively insure a maximum payment of $375,000 to Finister.

  Jennings, however, said despite repeated calls to Lee's attorneys, the sheriff did not pay up until Jan. 29, 2001.

  Lee then cut her a check for $368,000, she said, but only after she and co-counsel Robert E. McKnight Jr. moved to seize the sheriff's assets and filed the motion to hold Lee in criminal and civil contempt of the March court order.

  At last week's contempt hearing, Zibilich told the judge she could not order the sheriff to post a bond to insure payment of the judgment, then under appeal. "You can't force me to post a supersedeas bond," Zibilich said. Referring to Jennings, he added: "Her only remedy is to go seize" the sheriff's assets to satisfy the judgment.

  Jennings countered that the judge's ruling clearly ordered the sheriff to post a bond by April 6, 2000.

  Rejecting the criminal contempt motion, Judge Berrigan ruled that Lee was in civil contempt of her earlier order. "Perhaps in the future, you might advise Sheriff Lee differently," Berrigan told Zibilich. "You might appeal my orders instead of ignoring them."

  Zibilich interjected: "This is not about Sheriff Lee, Judge. This is about the taxpayers of Jefferson Parish."

  "Maybe Sheriff Lee will have to answer to the taxpayers," Berrigan replied. The judge then ordered Lee to reimburse Jennings for costs and attorney fees – an estimated $5,000 to $10,000 – she incurred while pursuing payment of the judgment.

  After the hearing ended, Zibilich said he would appeal the judge's ruling to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, at least a dozen of the high school students in the courtroom audience gave Jennings the "thumbs up" sign, she said.

  "This sends a message to other civil rights attorneys that the sheriff is not invincible in federal court," said Jennings, speaking to reporters on the front steps of the courthouse after the hearing. "There is no king here."

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS: In our Feb. 6 Winter Restaurant Guide, an incorrect number was listed for Salvatore Ristorante; the correct number is 455-2433. Also, 201 Restaurant and Bar no longer offers live music. Additionally, Russell's Short Stop Po-Boys does not "slow-smoke" its roast beef, nor does it offer soups, breakfast dishes or plate lunches; Russell's does offer gumbo and is open during breakfast hours. Finally, Mr. John's Steak and Seafood House offers USDA prime beef for its steak offerings; it does not offer a baked Brie appetizer as listed in the guide, but does offer a stuffed mushroom with crabmeat. Gambit Weekly regrets the errors.