Federal agent shot by LSP trooper in New Orleans last year files excessive force lawsuit

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A federal agent who was shot by a State Police trooper last year near New Orleans’ Riverwalk has filed a lawsuit accusing the trooper of excessive force and of lying to justify the shooting.

Ronald Martin and his wife, Leilani Martin, an assistant attorney general for their home state of Kentucky, demand an unspecified amount of damages from Louisiana State Police Sgt. Alan Arcana in their 38-page lawsuit filed at New Orleans’ federal courthouse on Tuesday.

The suit claims Arcana lied when he said the shooting was prompted by Martin pointing a laser sight at him and that Arcana used excessive force, causing Martin injuries for which he is still receiving physical therapy as well as a demotion at work.

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Orleans Parish prosecutors have charged Martin with aggravated assault on a police officer, possessing a firearm while acting violently and illegally aiming a laser at a law enforcement officer.

He has pleaded not guilty in the case, which remains pending.

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Ronald Martin was walking back to the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel on Poydras Street when he became lost “in a very dark area with which he was completely unfamiliar,” according to his suit, prepared by attorneys John and Elizabeth Carpenter. Feeling vulnerable, Martin — a civilian special agent with the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command — pulled out a .380-caliber pistol that had a laser sight which he insists he never activated.

An on-duty Arcana then emerged from an unmarked Dodge Durango that was parked nearby, just next to a riverfront office for troopers who help patrol New Orleans, Martin’s suit recounts. Arcana hid behind a nearby concrete pillar and used his .40-caliber pistol to shoot Martin three times, striking him in the abdomen and in the sole of his left foot, the suit said.

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