Woman Makes False Complaint, Sheriff Orders False Arrest - April 26, 2024
- 16 days ago
On the afternoon of April 26th, 2024, a female subject called the Caldwell Parish, Louisiana sheriff's office to report that a man was at her house and "tearing up her house." The report was quickly determined to be false. A high-ranking investigator advised the responding deputy that the "suspect" and a relative of the complainant, had just left from the SO with legal paperwork and were enroute to serve an eviction notice at that residence. The investigator also advised that she was on the phone with another person near the scene, who disputed the female subject's complaint. The investigator then advised that yet another person, who lives at that residence, called in with information disputing the complaint - and that there was video evidence to dispute the complaint. That's two witnesses' word - and video evidence - against the word of the complainant, before the deputy ever arrived. The deputy took that information and concluded that the complaint was most likely false. But then the SHERIFF got involved...
The sheriff advised he was on the phone with the complainant's husband - a police juror (think parish councilman), who is an elected official (meaning he has political power) - who advised that they wanted to press charges against the "suspect" if at all possible. This AFTER the sheriff heard all of the preceding radio traffic. What this means is, the sheriff knew as well as everybody else did that the complaint was most likely false, but instructed his deputy to unlawfully arrest the man anyway. It's unknown whether he actually was arrested, but the man and the deputy went to the SO, and I could hear them in the background of unrelated radio traffic that was not included in this recording. If he was, in fact, arrested based on the false complaint despite credible witnesses and video contradicting the complainant, that would be a false arrest. We will have to wait until the local newspaper is issued next week - or maybe the week after next - to find out whether they did arrest him, though.
The sheriff advised he was on the phone with the complainant's husband - a police juror (think parish councilman), who is an elected official (meaning he has political power) - who advised that they wanted to press charges against the "suspect" if at all possible. This AFTER the sheriff heard all of the preceding radio traffic. What this means is, the sheriff knew as well as everybody else did that the complaint was most likely false, but instructed his deputy to unlawfully arrest the man anyway. It's unknown whether he actually was arrested, but the man and the deputy went to the SO, and I could hear them in the background of unrelated radio traffic that was not included in this recording. If he was, in fact, arrested based on the false complaint despite credible witnesses and video contradicting the complainant, that would be a false arrest. We will have to wait until the local newspaper is issued next week - or maybe the week after next - to find out whether they did arrest him, though.