Police officer – ticket writingstock

Will the Lake Charles Police Department continue to participate in the district attorney’s ticket-writing program now that it might be a violation of ethics laws?

“As long as it’s legal, the LCPD will use all means at their disposal to reduce crashes, injuries and deaths involving traffic violations,” Police Chief Don Dixon said in a statement forwarded to The Informer.

The Southern Poverty Law Center on June 18 filed a complaint with the state Ethics Board, accusing several Louisiana district attorneys — including Calcasieu DA John DeRosier — of using ticket-writing details to pad their budgets and flout ethics laws.

“The state’s ethic code prohibits district attorneys from leveraging the threat of prosecution in order to make money,” reads an SPLC news release announcing the filing.

“The SPLC is asking the ethics board to thoroughly investigate the traffic ticket diversion programs, to reaffirm that district attorneys may not profit from the threat of prosecution, and to order the district attorneys to return the millions of dollars in profits they have extracted through their for-profit diversion scheme.”

A week later, the group filed a supplemental complaint, saying that such programs may also violate state criminal statutes because the tickets written aren’t handled by the court system, as required by state law.

“We contacted the district courts in the Eighteenth Judicial District (West Baton Rouge, Iberville, and Pointe Coupee parishes) Twenty-Ninth Judicial District (St. Charles Parish), and Fourteenth Judicial District (Calcasieu Parish) and asked if diversion tickets are filed with the court,” reads the supplement.

“Representatives from these courts said that the tickets are not filed with them, and are instead handled by the district attorneys’ offices, outside the purview of the courts.”

The Calcasieu Parish program, called Local Agency Compensated Enforcement, covers officers’ overtime costs, and drivers who receive tickets via the program can pay a fine and avoid court.

DeRosier has said the program helps fund his and the Public Defenders Office, along with uniforms and equipment.

Online: www.splcenter.org.

 

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 Board members not compensated

How much are members of the Chennault International Airport Authority Board of Commissioners paid?

Louisiana Revised Statute 33:4710.2, which outlines the board’s jurisdiction and defines its composition, says that “members of the commission shall serve without compensation.”

The board may reimburse a member “for expenses actually incurred in the performance of his duties.”

But the board’s latest financial review, released in January, shows that members received no payments in fiscal year 2017.

State law says the Chennault board must have seven members, including two appointed by the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, two appointed by the city of Lake Charles and two appointed by the Calcasieu Parish School Board.

The seventh member, the law says, is chosen by the six appointees.

Two members — one picked by the Police Jury and one by the School Board — must be from Ward 4, 5, 6 or 7.

And one parish appointee and one city appointee must be members of a racial minority.

Online: www.legis.la.gov; https://lla.la.gov.

 

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The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.