Lafayette City Marshall ordered to serve 7 days in jail/$100k in reimbursement

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Fifteenth Judicial District Judge Jules Edwards handed down a 30-day jail sentence against Pope, with all but seven of those days suspended, and ordered him to surrender to the Lafayette Parish jail by Monday. Edwards said Pope will be allowed to serve the sentence on house arrest, but he will remain on unsupervised probation until 2021.

Pope also has been ordered to pay $18,800 in penalties and more than $77,900 in attorney fees and court costs in the case, which began when The Independent sued the marshal for refusing to release certain emails sent to and from Pope’s public email account.

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Pope’s evasion of public records law and the legal proceedings that followed — including allegations of lying under oath — revolved around an Oct. 7 news conference he had called to attack Leger’s then-opponent, Sheriff-elect Mark Garber.

The eventual production of those emails showed Leger’s campaign manager, Joe Castille, authored the words behind the conference Pope held — at his office, in uniform and while flanked by deputy marshals — to accuse Garber of encouraging illegal immigrants to settle in Louisiana.

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Edwards also chided Pope for appearing armed and in uniform throughout the court proceedings, citing a statute that prohibits a law enforcement officer from appearing in court in official attire and toting a weapon when the officer is a defendant.

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