3 Louisiana officers arrested in separate cases
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Two officers in Louisiana’s capital city face charges after one allegedly leaked details to drug dealers about an investigation in exchange for cash and the other allegedly sexually assaulted a woman, department officials said.
A third officer, who has since been fired, was charged in a shoplifting investigation in April.
Officer Richmond Barrow faces one count each of obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office. He’s accused of sharing information about a narcotics investigation with people involved in drug trafficking in exchange for cash. Officer Wade Hill, meanwhile, faces charges of kidnapping, obscenity, malfeasance in office and misdemeanor sexual battery in the assault of a woman at his apartment, Deputy Chief Myron Daniels said during a news conference on Thursday.
“(This) should upset you,” Police Chief Murphy Paul said of the allegations. “This erodes the faith of our community, and that’s why we must take corrective action and restore that trust. That’s what we have done.”
Arrested Thursday, Barrow has resigned, news agencies reported. He had been with the department for four years.
Hill is on administrative leave pending a disciplinary hearing, Daniels said.
The department also shared details of another officer’s arrest in April after he was caught in a shoplifting investigation at a Denham Springs Walmart. Billy Mattingly is accused of entering the store and swapping stickers on products so he could buy them more cheaply than advertised, Daniels said.
A disciplinary hearing was held last week, and the 11-year police department veteran was fired.
It was unknown if any of the men has an attorney who could comment on their behalf.
The arrests are fruits of efforts to root out wrongdoing by a few officers in a department by and large populated by honest and hardworking officers, police officials said.
“Public trust is something that is paramount to our success as a police department as well as a city,” Daniels said. “The actions taken today are not easy. But they were necessary.”