The case against former Crowley Police Chief Jimmy Broussard is now closed.
The Crowley Post-Signal reported that Broussard pleaded "no contest" to a misdemeanor charge of attempted inconsistent statement / false swearing in court this week. The Acadia Parish Clerk of Court said they could not verify that because the minutes haven't been completed yet, and it would be a couple of weeks before they were.
We reached out to District Attorney Don Landry, whose office told us he was out today and suggested we call the clerk.
We've also reached out to Broussard's attorney but haven't heard back yet. We'll update this story when we do.
Broussard was indicted by a grand jury in February 2021 on four counts of malfeasance in office, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of attempted first-degree injuring of public records. All but one of those charges, a malfeasance charge, were dropped when an amended indictment was filed in the case.
Last year, Broussard was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election and a new chief was sworn in back in January 2023.
In 2022, Broussard's attorney William L. Goode argued in a Motion to Dismiss that "the case against Chief Broussard is obviously political and not well-founded in law and fact, and the District Attorney's Office has gone out of its way" to protect two witnesses in the case - despite evidence that they are guilty of crimes. He also argued that Broussard isn't guilty of the crime alleged, because he did what the indictment alleges he didn't do.
Back when Broussard was indicted, the District Attorney's Office did not answer any questions posed about the reasons for the charges. However, KATC Investigates did some digging, and when we asked for records related to Broussard's arrest, we were provided with the same document we got in January 2021 when we asked for records related to an April 2020 excessive force case. That document stated that the District Attorney had called the Acadia Sheriff's Office to request an investigation of the Crowley Police Department.
In that case, Officer Ashlee McElroy was accused of excessive force in an April 2020 incident. She was booked in January 2021 with second-degree battery and malfeasance in connection with an incident involving a person in her custody. Defense motions say the indictment against Broussard accused him of "knowingly, intentionally, and voluntarily failing to investigate, enforce, and/or report to the District Attorney's Office the alleged violation of state law" by McElroy.
But Broussard found out about the incident the day after it happened, and ordered a report be prepared. He also suspended McElroy and ordered an Internal Affairs investigation, defense motions argued.
Throughout the case, the defense also has argued that the DA's office treated Broussard differently than other officers involved - including officers that Broussard said had committed multiple violations of the law. The defense alleged that all charges should be dismissed because of "prosecutorial misconduct."
