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Weeks after the Baton Rouge Police Department faced accusations that officers had subjected detainees to humiliating strip-searches in an unmarked “torture warehouse,” four officers have been accused of carrying out and covering up another violent incident in a precinct bathroom.
Two Baton Rouge police officers brought a man they had arrested to the bathroom of a precinct building in September 2020 to strip-search him, Police Chief Murphy Paul Jr. said in a Friday news conference.
To force him to comply, the officers threatened him by drawing their Tasers, Paul said. An officer then struck the man.
The officers inadvertently captured video of the incident on their body cameras, which began recording once the officers activated their Tasers, Paul said. A supervisor who reviewed the videos told the officers that the videos probably captured an excessive use of force, and the group then conspired to cover up the incident by disposing of the devices, Paul said.
Four Baton Rouge police officers — Deputy Chief Troy Lawrence Sr., Cpl. Todd Thomas, Sgt. Jesse Barcelona and Cpl. Douglas Chutz — were charged Thursday after a department investigation, Paul said.
“There is no room for misconduct or unethical behavior in our department,” Paul said. “No one is above the law, and that includes members of our own department.”
All four officers were charged with malfeasance in office, WAFB reported. Thomas was also charged with simple battery and obstruction of justice. Lawrence and Barcelona were also charged as principals to obstruction of justice and theft and Lawrence as a principal to battery, according to court documents.
Lawrence, Barcelona and Thomas surrendered to a judge Thursday, WAFB reported. Chutz was expected to turn himself in at a later time.
An attorney for Thomas declined to comment. An attorney for Barcelona did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court records do not list lawyers for Lawrence or Chutz. Lawrence, Chutz and the Baton Rouge Union of Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bill Profita, a union spokesperson, called the accusations “nebulous” in a statement to CNN, adding that details of the case were “hard to come by.”
The charges are the latest accusations to hit the Baton Rouge Police Department. Weeks earlier, two lawsuits accused officers of strip-searching and beating detainees in an unmarked warehouse dubbed the “Brave Cave,” prompting an FBI investigation.
Attorneys described the facility as a “torture warehouse” used by the police department’s street-crimes unit. In the “Brave Cave,” officers forced a 51-year-old woman to expose herself in a strip-search and fractured a 22-year-old man’s rib before questioning him, two lawsuits alleged.
The unit was disbanded, and the warehouse was closed in late September. In an interview last month, Paul pledged to investigate the incidents and any other reports of misconduct.
The officers accused of threatening and striking the man in the precinct bathroom in 2020 also belonged to the street-crimes unit, Paul said at the news conference Friday. Paul did not say whether the man was injured during the incident or why he was arrested, though he added that officers discovered a package of synthetic marijuana on the man’s body after striking him.
Paul said the department is conducting several administrative investigations and criminal probes into various officers’ conduct.
At Friday’s news conference, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome repeated a pledge to continue scrutinizing the police department.
“This is not a time for just an annual checkup,” Weston Broome said. “This is time for a full-body MRI to diagnose and reveal any dysfunctions or wrongdoings.”
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/02/baton-rouge-officers-charged-brave-cave/