The judge ordered Robert Davis to return to court in January for trial proceedings.

Defense attorney Joe Bruno stepped from an improvised courtroom in an Amtrak train station and slammed prosecutors for refusing to drop charges against Davis and contending that Davis had been "stumbling drunk."

"That is the wrong thing to do right now," Bruno said as Davis silently got into a waiting sedan. "We are living in hell in this city.

"We don't need denial right now. We need them to take responsibility."

Davis had trouble with alcoholism 25 years ago and has been sober since, according to Bruno.

A television news crew's videotape of the drubbing of Davis has been broadcast repeatedly throughout the United States and is "extraordinary evidence" of his innocence, Bruno said.

"Without the video, he would be just another drunk," Bruno said. "That is how these things are handled. It is clear this man did nothing wrong."

The retired school teacher had checked on his ruined home in the city's Ninth Ward and had gone for dinner in the French Quarter on Saturday prior to his run-in with police on Bourbon Street, Bruno said.

Davis was on his way to get cigarettes after eating when he stopped to ask a mounted police officer about the curfew, the lawyer said.

Davis has publicly denied he was drinking alcohol the night of his arrest and said he did nothing to provoke the beating that ended with him bloodied and handcuffed on a sidewalk.

"I'm talking in a nice, cordial way to a black officer on a horse," Davis said in an interview Tuesday. "All of a sudden, the white officer hit me in the eye and dazed me and threw me up against the wall."

A white officer yelled, "I'm going to kick your ass," Davis recounted, saying he was "jumped" and pummeled to the sidewalk, face down.

A New York City police officer who booked Davis into the makeshift jail at a bus terminal that night told AFP Davis was polite and civil at the time.

Three officers accused of beating Davis were suspended from their jobs and criminally charged with battery.

The trio pleaded innocent in court and their trial was set to start in January, a week before the proceedings involving Davis.

The charged officers would be vital witnesses in a criminal case against Davis, but the reliability of their testimony has been called into question by the charges against them.

"They have no credibility," Bruno said of the officers. "None. Look at the videotape; the guy is pounding (Davis)."

Davis's blood-red left eye was swollen and his face battered. His cheekbone was fractured and he may need surgery, Bruno said of his client.

Davis will meet Wednesday or Thursday with FBI officials investigating what role was played by a pair of off-duty FBI agents who helped officers grapple Davis into custody, according to his lawyer.

"I think it's unfortunate," Bruno said of the FBI agents pitching in to subdue Davis. "They had a chance to intervene and stop it."

US federal officials earlier this week launched a civil rights probe of the beating.

New Orleans police, saddled with a reputation for desertion, corruption and thuggery, are now fending off accusations of racist brutality.

The thrashing of the African-American man by white officers in the French Quarter over the weekend was the latest black eye for a department already reeling from blows to its integrity.

Approximately 250 police officers, nearly 15 percent of the department, are being investigated for apparently deserting their posts in the tumult of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the city on August 29.

Another probe has been launched to determine why officers took luxury cars, including two vintage automobiles, from a Cadillac dealership in New Orleans in the lawless wake of the storm.

Officers have been accused of ignoring reports of rape and other savagery at a shelter for refugees in the city's Superdome.

Police have also been accused of making sport of shooting dogs that residents were forced to leave behind while escaping the then-flooded city.

The city's police superintendent resigned amid the criticism of his department. He was replaced by veteran cop Warren Riley, who has staunchly defended his officers' honor.

Riley, who is African-American, attributed problems to "a few bad cops" and vowed they would be "weeded out." Acts of heroism by officers were plentiful during the anarchy that followed the twin storms in New Orleans, Riley said.

"I'm not going to indict the New Orleans Police Department," Bruno said when asked whether the Davis beating was symbolic of brutal tactics used by the force.

"There are some bad eggs out there; officers are beat up from the storms. That is why we are asking the world for help."

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