Local journalist A.C. Thompson, who recently returned to the Bay Area after spending three years in New York, is the model for a character on the new season of HBO's series Treme, which covers life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina from multiple perspectives. Thompson was a freelance reporter for the SF Bay Guardian and other outlets when he decided to go to New Orleans in 2007 to investigate white-on-black crimes in the wake of the storm. What he found ended up being key evidence in the prosecution of five New Orleans police officers in a wrongful death.

The character of L.P. Everett, a young journalist out of UC Berkeley, appeared in the season premiere on Sunday, teaming up with Melissa Leo's character to get public records out of the New Orleans coroner's office — something which Thompson says is no easy feat in a new interview with San Francisco Magazine.

I was naïve, I was just Bambi. What I didn’t understand about New Orleans is that when you call the coroner and talk to his staff about getting autopsy records, they would tell you, “Well they may be public records under the law, but we don’t follow the law.” Even the most basic reporting task turns out to be an epic undertaking in New Orleans.

Evidence that the real-life Thompson found led to the arrest and federal trial of five current and former New Orleans police officers in the death of a black man named Henry Glover. Police had tried to cover up the crime by burning his body, and three of the five officers, David Warren, Gregory McRae, and Travis McCabe were convicted in the crime and cover-up, with Warren found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting of Glover. All three are now in prison.

Thompson has also done work for the Chauncey Bailey Project and SF Weekly, and he now lives in the East Bay.

[SF Mag]