At or near April 2010, during Lafayette’s Festival International de Louisiane, a disabled, homeless one-legged citizen was arrested and handcuffed.
The individual was located at the LPD’s command bus where the disabled and handcuffed male was sitting in a chair awaiting transport.
While waiting for transport, Defendant Craft, who had apparently consumed at least one (1) recent alcoholic beverage, encountered the arrested and disabled homeless man.
Upon encountering this individual, the arrested individual began telling Defendant Craft that the police were no good as well as cussing at Craft.
Craft, upon hearing these insults, jumped upon the disabled man and began to choke him, all while telling the individual he wasn’t going to talk to Craft like that because he was the Chief of Police.
After choking the individual for approximately thirty (30) seconds, Craft’s wife came to the aid of the homeless man, removed Craft from him, placed Craft into a vehicle, and drove him away.
While Craft was being pulled away to his vehicle, a fellow officer, Jimmy Richard, asked Craft if he were going to file a “use of force” report for the incident, since the LPD General Orders mandate the execution and submission of such a form.
Craft laughed while riding away from the scene.
Officer Jimmy Richard, at the time, was the Senior Defense Tactics training officer for the Lafayette Police Department as well as the Acadiana and St. Martin Law Enforcement Academies, well versed in LPD’s requirement that a use of force report must be filed whenever non-lethal force is used against a citizen, particularly when closed-hand techniques and/or neck restraints which can cause serious death or injury are used.
Upon information and belief, Officer Scott Rummel of the LPD was hand-picked by Craft to write the mandatory police report for the arrest of the disabled man.
The report which Rummel wrote and submitted, falsely and completely omitted the entire encounter between Craft and the homeless and disabled individual.
Officers who were present and witnessed this incident included Officer Chris Starling, Monty Potier, Lance LeBlanc, and Scott Rummel.
Lafayette PD spokesman Kyle Soriez directed questions about the alleged incident to LCG's legal department. Read the rest of the lawsuit here.
KLFY was the first media outlet to obtain an internal memo Craft issued to employees June 5, the day the lawsuit was filed.
For the first time since the suit, Craft made a public statement Thursday morning. "Time, patience and the judicial system, not sensational publicity stunts, will prove these allegations false and inaccurate," he said. Read the statement here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
!!!!!