WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge has agreed to postpone a sentencing hearing for a former police officer who pleaded guilty to helping cover up deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

Robert Barrios was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. On Tuesday, however, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon postponed the hearing until Nov. 17.

Barrios' attorney, Robert Glass, had requested more time to study how his client's case is affected by a jury's Aug. 5 conviction of five current or former officers on civil rights charges stemming from the September 2005 shootings on the Danziger Bridge.

Barrios is one of five former officers who pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up of the shootings, which killed two people and wounded four others several days after the storm.