LAFAYETTE, La. (KATC) — With his sentencing hearing only weeks away, suspended Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope and his attorney Brett Grayson have filed a motion for acquittal for his four felony convictions.
According to court records, the motion asks the court for a new hearing to either “show cause why the court should not set aside the jury’s guilty verdict and grant the defendant’s motion for acquittal” or to “review the responsive verdicts and enter a verdict to a lesser and included offense.”
The 34-page court document filed on Monday suggests that the evidence presented during the trial is insufficient to support the jury’s decision to find Pope guilty of perjury and malfeasance in office.
On Oct. 3, 2018,a jury convicted Pope on four out of the seven charges he faced. Pope was found guilty on one count of perjury and three counts of malfeasance in office, stemming from a public records dispute with The Independent.
Pope is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on April 3 in the Lafayette Parish Courthouse.
Pope is then scheduled for a pre-trial hearing the following day on April 4 for his next felony trial. That trial stems from a Lafayette Parish Grand Jury indictment for 17 felony counts of malfeasance in office.
Pope pleaded not guilty to those charges in January.
Read the full motion for acquittal below.
