BRPD Officer Arrested For Keeping Confiscated Weed

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A Baton Rouge police officer was arrested Thursday after submitting a false police report to her supervisor, BRPD spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola Jr. said.

An internal investigation found that Michelle Patterson, 28, responded to a call last month about a woman with marijuana in her possession. According to footage from her body camera, Patterson confiscated a marijuana cigarette from the woman and issued her a misdemeanor summons, Coppola said in a news release.

The next day Patterson typed her report of the incident, documenting accurately the events that happened, Coppola said. But later that same day, she deleted the initial report and wrote a new description of events, leaving out the fact that she confiscated a marijuana cigarette and issued a misdemeanor summons.

The original misdemeanor summons was later found in Patterson's police vehicle, Coppola said.

Patterson had been a Baton Rouge police officer for about two years, assigned to the Uniform Patrol Division. She is currently on administrative leave, according to the release.

She was booked into Parish Prison on counts of injuring public records and malfeasance in office.

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