Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope indicted on 7 more counts of malfeasance
Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope's legal problems mounted Thursday as a grand jury handed down another criminal indictment on seven felony counts of malfeasance in office. That’s on top of the seven felonies that Pope is scheduled to be tried on in less than two weeks.
The latest charges accuse Pope of unlawfully taking Marshal’s Office funds on seven occasions this year, from January to July. The total amount Pope is accused of taking exceeds $13,000.
The indictment itself does not elaborate on the circumstances or methods of the alleged crimes, but they appear related to Pope’s documented habit of pocketing revenue from court fees in apparent violation of state law. The indictment cites a statute prohibiting city marshals in Lafayette and Shreveport from the practice of personally receiving this revenue, unlike marshals in 16 other municipalities.
That law is also cited in a Jan. 29 Attorney General’s opinion that District Attorney Keith Stutes requested. The opinion is dated two days before the first count of impropriety in the latest indictment.
Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/crime_police/article_61192242-b789-11e8-8419-275bf5ec0b81.html