Because some law enforcement officers tend to believe that simply wearing a badge gives them carte blanche to harass, assault, and even kill black and brown people, it's no surprise that time and time again the public has to sit through misconduct cases, hoping against hope that justice is served.
This time, a federal court is tasked with deciding just how deep misconduct reaches in a Louisiana sheriff’s office about 120 miles southwest of Baton Rouge, according to the website The Appeal. The federal case could impact more than 700 other cases that the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office filed after several deputies were convicted of assaulting and harassing men in the parish jail, the site reported.
This brings into question exactly how much abuse former Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal allowed. The federal probe has already resulted in more than 100 criminal cases decided during Ackal’s time in office being tossed out, The Appeal reported. Ackal, who told the local Acadiana Advocate last November he was “done,” did not seek re-election. “I’m beat up. I’m tired,” he said.
He, however, couldn’t have been nearly as tired as the people of Iberia Parish must be of him.
Republican Tommy Romero was elected earlier this month to replace Ackal. During the former sheriff’s 10-year tenure, lawsuit settlements against his office cost the agency about $6 million.
Ackal was indicted in March 2016 on federal civil rights charges related to the beatings of five detainees in April 2011. In November 2016, he was acquitted on all counts in his case. Witnesses in Ackal’s 2016 trial detailed multiple beatings allegedly targeting black men. They happened so frequently that former Deputy Wade Bergeron testified at trial that when he reported beating two black men to Ackal, Ackal responded that “‘it sounds like a case of n----r knockin.”
As if that claim isn’t despicable enough, the problem many cities face is that district attorneys aren’t keeping track of the problematic histories of law enforcement officers, The Appeal reported. An unnamed defense attorney told the news outlet that when prosecutors don’t keep track of and disclose when an officer has a track record of lying, it leads to “sweeping police officers with credibility problems under the rug.”