WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge has been asked to postpone the retrial of a retired New Orleans police sergeant charged with helping cover up deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt didn't immediately rule on the joint request by lawyers for Gerard Dugue and the Justice Department.

Dugue's retrial is scheduled to start March 11, but both sides said Engelhardt may need more time to consider Dugue's recently filed motion to dismiss his indictment.

His first trial ended in a mistrial when Engelhardt ruled that a prosecutor may have unfairly influenced the jury by mentioning the name of a man beaten to death by a New Orleans police officer in an unrelated case.

Dugue is charged with writing a false report on the Danziger Bridge shootings.

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