New Orleans Man Pleads Guilty to Various Drug Trafficking Violations, and with Discharging a Firearm in Furtherance of a Crime of Violence and a Drug Trafficking Crime, Resulting in the Shooting of DEA Task Force Officer Stephen Arnold

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that JARVIS HARDY, age 29, pleaded guilty to Counts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Seven, and Eight of the Superseding Indictment. 

Count One charges the defendant with conspiring to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute 280 grams or more of a mixture/substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A);  Counts Two through Five each charge the defendant with distribution of a quantity of cocaine base in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C); Count Seven charges the discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and a drug trafficking crime; and Count Eight charges possession with the intent to distribute twenty-eight grams or more of cocaine base in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B).  

The guilty plea followed a Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) investigation that revealed beginning no later than January 2015 and continuing until his arrest, the defendant, Jarvis HARDY, distributed crack cocaine virtually every day throughout the streets of New Orleans.  As a part of that investigation, DEA made four separate controlled buys of ¼ and ½ ounce quantities of crack cocaine from HARDY over an approximate ten-month timespan.  Based on those controlled purchases, an arrest warrant for HARDY, along with a search warrant were obtained.   

In the early morning hours of January 26, 2016, a team of law enforcement officers, led by DEA, gathered to prepare for the execution of HARDY’s arrest warrant.  DEA TFO Stephen Arnold and several other agents and task force officers knocked and announced their presence and intention to execute the search warrant at 5300 Douglas Street.  As TFO Arnold led the team through the house, HARDY fired his Smith and Wesson Model SW40VE, .40 caliber pistol, serial number DVB4809, three times at Stephen Arnold from a few feet away, striking Arnold twice in the neck and arm. 

In his home on Douglas Street, HARDY had approximately 1 ½ ounces of crack cocaine, which later tested positive for cocaine base, and $985 in a safe in his bedroom, as well as instruments consistent with the conversion of cocaine hydrochloride to cocaine base, such as a crock pot.  HARDY also had a razor blades, a grinder, a mixer, and a digital scale.  HARDY additionally possessed two firearms, one of which he used to shoot TFO Arnold, and one which he kept near the safe with his cash and crack cocaine.  HARDY’s firearms were a Smith and Wesson Model SW40VE, .40 caliber pistol, serial number DVB4809, and a Ruger Model P95, 9mm pistol, serial number 318-62450. 

Stephen C. Arnold was a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Detective and was a deputized Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force Officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration New Orleans, Louisiana Field Office. 

Although Stephen Arnold survived the shooting, he remains completely incapacitated and receives 24 hour care in an assisted facility.  

This prosecution was the result of an intensive joint investigation conducted by Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New Orleans Police Department. 

The prosecution has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Liz Privitera, David Haller, Theodore Carter and Jay Quinlan.