I-TEAM: Fifth officer to go before grand jury tied to BRPD street crimes corruption case
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A fifth officer is now caught in the crosshairs of a special investigation into an alleged excessive force case at the Baton Rouge Police Department’s First District Precinct.
Sources confirmed to the WAFB I-Team that a Baton Rouge Police officer, who was a whistleblower in the case, was given notice that he is now a target of that investigation and could be called before a grand jury. The grand jury would determine if enough evidence is present to move forward with criminal charges against the officers involved.
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Prominent defense attorney Ron Haley represents the whistleblower. He says he expects that the grand jury will not proceed with charges against his client.
“The inquiry into our client is in no way indicative of any guilt,” said Haley.
“We believe if the information is presented to a grand jury that the grand jury will believe as I do, and as the Baton Rouge Police Department did when its leaders initiated the investigation, that he has not committed any crime. He has not been arrested for any events that led to this grand jury. We invite and look forward to the presentation of evidence where it will be abundantly clear that he did not do anything that will warrant any criminal charges,” Haley added.
The grand jury was formed at the request of East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore. It is seated for up to one year.
The whistleblowing officer was present with four other officers, Doug Chustz, Todd Thomas, Troy Lawrence Sr., and Jesse Barcelona during a violent strip search in 2020.
A man arrested at the scene of a music video shoot for rapper NBA Youngboy was transported to the First District Precinct.
According to police records, a man was brought to the building and searched after officers grew suspicious that he was hiding drugs in his body.
To force the man into compliance with the search, an officer activated his stun gun to scare the man into complying with the search. However, by activating the stun gun, the officer unintentionally triggered another officer’s body camera, police officials said.
The other four officers were arrested and face various charges because of the incident. This fifth officer is the latest officer to be publicly tied to the incident.
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