An Assumption Parish grand jury indicted a second former law enforcement officer in connection with the unsupervised auto parts shopping trip by two then-Assumption Parish jail trusties in October 2008, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
The grand jury returned a true bill Wednesday against former Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Brown on one felony count of malfeasance in office in connection with the Oct. 2, 2008, ride, the prosecutor said.
Lafourche Parish District Attorney Camille A. “Cam” Morvant II said the grand jury issued a warrant for Brown’s arrest.
Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said his office was informed Wednesday the paperwork would be ready this morning and then he would seek to arrest Brown.
The sheriff declined further comment Wednesday. Brown is Waguespack’s former assistant jail warden. The sheriff fired Brown June 30 after conducting an internal affairs investigation into the trusty incident. The trusties, who worked in the jail motor pool, reportedly were on an errand to buy auto parts when they were arrested in Lafourche Parish.
The investigation found Brown and Thibodaux Police Cpl. Rodney Rhodes conspired with others to set up an arrest of the trusties in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish, thereby embarrassing Waguespack.
The report said Brown saw the trusties leave the Assumption jail in Napoleonville and did not alert the sheriff but called Rhodes to make the arrest at an auto parts store miles away in Lafourche.
The sheriff’s report said Brown was known to have it in for the trusties and that Brown was not truthful with internal affairs investigators. Waguespack had previously terminated Rhodes as Assumption Parish jail warden.
On Oct. 9, a separate grand jury impaneled by Morvant in Lafourche Parish indicted Rhodes on one count of felony malfeasance in office.
Rhodes is accused of filing a police report with a false statement of material fact about the trusties’ arrest. Some three weeks before the indictment, Rhodes was dismissed for not following police procedures unrelated to the trusties.
Rhodes has pleaded not guilty to the charge, is out on bond and goes before Lafourche Parish Judge Jerome Barbera III Feb. 4, Morvant said.
The trusties, who were state Department of Corrections inmates being held at the Assumption jail, were never charged in the incident and returned to state custody.
Brown’s attorney, Marvin Gros, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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