LAFAYETTE, La. (KATC) — Suspended Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope was back in court Thursday morning where a judge continued his upcoming trial on malfeasance in office charges without a new date.
Pope and his attorney were in court after requesting a change of venue for the trial outside of Lafayette Parish motion filed in January citing media coverage of the case and the failed recall petition against him. Earlier in the month, Pope filed motions to get the malfeasance charges dismissed.
During Thursday's hearing, prosecutors stated that they had just filed responses to those motions.
Pope's attorney indicated that local media outlets would be subpoenaed for their coverage of Pope and his previous trial proceedings to support the request for a change of venue.
The defense also made a request for emails between Assistant District Attorney Alan Haney and attorney Gary McGoffin who represented the Independent, which is the former newspaper that sued Pope over access to public records that led to his criminal charges, to support a motion to recuse Haney.
Those motions will be taken up at Pope's next hearing on March 12.
A felony trial for the case had been set for March 16, but both the defense and prosecution stated that they would not be ready in time for that date.
Pope is currently appealing a separate malfeasance conviction and the one-year jail sentence he received after his conviction in 2018.
