JPSO Sheriff Newell Normand defends deputy who beat teenager

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"Mr. Becker was incredibly pissed off that we were arresting his friend, a fellow high school student, for possession of marijuana," Normand said Wednesday (March 4), commenting publicly for the first time on the incident at Lakeside Mall.

Becker then was among as many as 30 people inside the Lakeside Mall parking garage that started yelling "f--k the pigs," the sheriff said. The officers attempted to calm the crowd, which again began chanting the anti-police vulgarities, Normand said.

Normand accused Becker and the family's attorney, David Bellfield, of orchestrating the civil rights lawsuit. Backing his assertion, Normand cited a recorded telephone conversation between Becker and his mother, before he was released from the parish jail.

Normand said she told him that Bellfield, whom she described as a large African-American man, was retained. "But he's a lawyer who goes after cops. He's coming to see you," she told her son.

Bellfield contacted the Sheriff's Office shortly after the incident, saying he planned to sue over the incident, Normand said. He said Becker, Bellfield and his family tried to "bamboozle the public, bamboozle the media, as it relates to this particular situation."

"My suspicions were validated as it relates to the intent of these parties, as it relates to what they were trying to accomplish related to the prosecution of a civil lawsuit against this office," Normand said.

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