Deus Ex Camera

Popping popcorn

A company trying to intervene at the last moment in the closely watched civil trial over the city's crime-camera contracts alleged late Wednesday that it was jilted by the plaintiffs in the same way that they claim computer giant Dell Inc., former city tech chief Greg Meffert and his friends filched their work.

The plaintiffs -- local firms Southern Electronics Supply and Active Solutions -- say they had a 2004 agreement with Dell to sell crime cameras to New Orleans, but that Dell, Meffert and firms owned by Mark St. Pierre conspired to use Southern and Active's product for their own deal with the city.

Attorneys for CamSoft Data Systems Inc. of Baton Rouge, which served as a subcontractor to the plaintiffs during the project's pilot phase, appeared a day before this week's trial began to say they actually designed Southern and Active's system and deserve at least one-third of anything they might win in the lawsuit.