Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope is once again in trouble with the law.
Pope hosts a show on AOC called “holding Accountable” and there are now calls for embattled City Marshal to be held accountable.
Pope was indicted once again by a Grand Jury on Thursday. From the indictment it appears the Marshal continued to supplement his salary with garnishment fees, despite an Attorney General’s opinion saying he couldn’t. He is accused of taking funds without legal authority seven times, totaling more than $13,000.
As of 10:30 Thursday night there was still no sign of Marshal Pope at the Parish jail. The Marshal is now facing a total of 14 criminal charges and those who filed the recall petition against him say this comes as no surprise. Aimee Robinson who chaired the recall said it was all a matter of time.
“I just want people to know that when you decide to do something because it’s the right thing to do, that you just keep fighting for it and you don’t give up,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that although the petition failed to get enough signatures, she is now depending on the law to prevail.
“We were actually told that the District Attorney couldn’t do anything about these additional funds that he was taking and so this is I feel like a little workaround of that. We were obviously pleased today when we saw these additional felonies, but not really all that surprised and I won’t really be surprised if we see more in the future,” Robinson said.
She makes it her goal to keep the community informed about Pope’s charges and court proceedings.
“When we discovered he was taking money that didn’t belong to him that just seemed wrong to me. When we think of police officers we think of officers that have to take double shifts to feed their families. He is taking money that doesn’t belong to him and living a very high life on it,” she said.
“I’m going to trust that the legal system here will do its job and that the city of Lafayette it a competent pool to find a jury in and we will just make sure we keep the focus on where it needs to be,” she said.
Pope is set to be arraigned on the newest charges on October 23, 2018.
