LA - Iberia Parish Sheriff Charged with Civil Rights Violations, March 2016

BayouBelle_LA

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Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal charged in federal court with civil rights violations

http://theadvocate.com/news/1513889...in-federal-court-with-civil-rights-violations

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal and one of his top officials on conspiracy and civil rights violations for their alleged involvement in beatings inside the parish jail’s chapel, incidents that already have netted guilty pleas from eight other employees who admitted to their roles in the abuse.

Investigators with the FBI’s Lafayette Resident Agency accuse Ackal and Savoy of conspiring with other deputies to assault five pretrial detainees during an April 29, 2011, shakedown. Deputies who have pleaded guilty attested in court that supervisors instructed them to take the men to the jail chapel, where there were no security cameras, to be punished by force.

Former Iberia Sheriff’s Office employee joins five others in guilty pleas related to inmate beatings in jail chapel

http://theadvocate.com/news/1499192...s-in-guilty-pleas-related-to-inmate-beatings-

The only place in the Iberia Parish jail without a surveillance camera was its chapel, where five men have now admitted a number of inmates were beaten, with the accused admitting to either using their batons or watching other deputies engage in the assaults.

The admissions came to light Thursday when plea documents were filed into the public court record two days after a closed-door hearing in U.S. District Court in Lafayette.

At least four of the five current and former Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office employees who pleaded guilty to their roles in the beatings agreed to cooperate with future investigations in exchange for their immunity from additional charges, according to the plea agreements.
 
Thanks for posting this, BayouBelle; I hope this rots in jail. I only wish that he would serve his time in a county or state prison rather than a federal one. I can't imagine that this is the only rotten sheriff out there. Well, I know he isn't.
 
Deputies’ guilty pleas put district court convictions in doubt

The first batch of notices has been sent to the attorneys of people charged in cases — hundreds of which have already been identified — where members of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office who pleaded guilty to civil rights violations, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges provided evidence or testimony.

http://www.iberianet.com/news/deput...cle_fa3d2806-e8d3-11e5-8259-cb681c3a9c5e.html
 
From the link in post #1 -

Hines said he struck the man with his knee and his baton, then wrote a false police report to justify the use of force, the plea agreement states.

http://theadvocate.com/news/1513889...in-federal-court-with-civil-rights-violations

Can't help but think that when cases of LE brutality and making false reports (among many other nasty crimes committed by LE) come to public light, it puts all of LE at risk from some of the less stable members of society.

Also have to think that as more and more cases some to light, more and more members of the public turn against all of LE - how does one know who is good and who is bad when encountering a member of LE?

Jmo.
 
Ninth IPSO deputy enters plea deal in federal investigation

http://www.iberianet.com/ninth-ipso...cle_b8014ab0-f532-11e5-a7d2-038fb5f1a0cf.html

Jeremy Hatley, a sergeant in the K-9 Unit, pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights and making a false statement Thursday, according to records made public today.

This is huge for a small community and as a place near and dear this hurts my heart. I won't be surprised if more deputies come forward for immunity.

We can add Jeremy Hatley to the list of corrupt and dishonorable men -
Former IPJ Warden Wesley Hayes, former IPJ Assistant Warden Jesse Hayes, former Lt. Bret Broussard of the Narcotics Unit, former narcotics agent Wade Bergeron, former narcotics agent Maj. Jason Comeaux, former narcotics agent David Hines, former narcotics agent Byron Benjamin Lassalle and former K-9 handler Robert Burns.
 
Justice Dept.: Iberia Sheriff spews anti-Semitic remarks at prosecutor, threatens to shoot him between eyes

The comments, which prosecutors said were made during secretly recorded conversations, were included in a request to tighten the rules Ackal must follow pending his trial in a sweeping federal probe of inmate abuse and cover-ups at the Sheriff’s Office.

http://theadvocate.com/news/1625734...cutor-a-jew-*advertiser censored*-and-made-co

I didn't post the sheriff's threat because of the disgusting language used but you can find it in the article.
 
I'm from the Acadiana area. It's so hurtful to hear/read the sheriff's rants. Hopefully he will be brought to justice. There are so many devoted and caring people that work with families to better their lives. Fortunately these individuals will continue to better the lives of families.
Justice Dept.: Iberia Sheriff spews anti-Semitic remarks at prosecutor, threatens to shoot him between eyes

The comments, which prosecutors said were made during secretly recorded conversations, were included in a request to tighten the rules Ackal must follow pending his trial in a sweeping federal probe of inmate abuse and cover-ups at the Sheriff’s Office.

http://theadvocate.com/news/1625734...cutor-a-jew-*advertiser censored*-and-made-co

I didn't post the sheriff's threat because of the disgusting language used but you can find it in the article.
 
Citing police killings, Iberia Parish Sheriff Ackal wants his gun back

Citing recent police killings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal is asking a federal judge to let him carry a firearm, a privilege he lost last month after his profane comments about a prosecutor were characterized as threats.

Ackal said in the motion and in a phone interview that he continues to be Iberia Parish’s sheriff even though he no longer is able to holster a weapon or have guns in his home.

“In view of what’s happening across the country, … I think it’s wrong that I, as a police officer, am told that I can’t carry a gun even though I’ve not been convicted of anything,” Ackal said Tuesday.

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...cle_f4eebdc2-4dcf-11e6-b09c-2f00d1531012.html

He's a walking time bomb. I'm amazed he's still sheriff.
 
UPDATE: Another revision to the indictment against Iberia Sheriff Ackal

The U.S. Justice Department has filed another revision to its indictment against Iberia Sheriff Louis Ackal and a top deputy, Lt. Col. Gerald Savoy.

The second superceding indictment converts one charge of conspiring to abuse an inmate to a charge of conspiracy to abuse the inmate and obstruct justice by concealing it.

Some of the specific things Ackal is accused of doing are:

- Instructing deputies in staff meetings to "work over" anyone who was defiant.
- Instructing deputies in staff meetings to charge anyone who was "worked over" with resisting arrest, and told senior Internal Affairs deputies should mark any excessive force complaint as "unfounded" if the complaining inmate had been charged with resisting arrest.
- Told supervising deputies that he would "take care of" any Internal Affairs investigations about excessive force.
- Brushing off complaints from other deputies about excessive force by his Narcotics Unit, saying that narcotics agents were "kicking *advertiser censored* and taking names" and doing what they were told.
- Telling Internal Affairs investigators to lay off the Narcotics Unit.
- Covering up an incident involving three drunk narcotics agents who beat up two black men while they were off-duty by telling them to lie, deleting the original report that named the narcotics agents as suspects in the beatings and removing any mention of it from the sheriff's electronic system.
- Directed employees in 2009 to burn all Internal Affairs files so that they could never become public.
- Disbanding the Internal Affairs unit in 2009.
- Driving an arrestee who allegedly assaulted a narcotics agent to a remote location, putting a bullet in the man's mouth and yelling at him.
- Putting his gun in the man's mouth and threatening to kill him.
- Directed narcotics agents to arrest a man who had punched Savoy in a bar in front of Savoy's wife
- Watched as narcotics officers beat the man in the narcotics office, then told him to lick his blood off the wall.

http://www.katc.com/story/33114928/...o-the-indictment-against-iberia-sheriff-ackal
 
Brief delay in trial for Ackal to take pain medication; witnesses continue to take the stand

http://www.iberianet.com/breaking_n...cle_0a1344ac-a1fe-11e6-aae6-97920e5c8f06.html

In his testimony, Huckabay gave more detail of a Nov. 2, 2008, incident in which he, former IPSO Narcotics Unit Lt. Troy Willis and former IPSO Narcotics Unit agent Wade Bergeron became drunk at a party then went out to find someone to beat up, eventually locating two black males, ages 16 and 23, to assault.

According to Huckabay, Ackal said the incident “sounds like a good old case of n*****-knocking to me,” when told about it after the fact. Huckabay said when Ackal heard the trio’s cover story — that they were involved in off-duty surveillance when they encountered the two men — that “he agreed with that.”

Jurors also heard from Marion Borel, a former Narcotics Unit officer who left the IPSO in 2010, after Ackal took office.

He also said the mantra within the office was that anyone who needed to be “tuned up” would be charged with resisting arrest to justify the excessive use of force.

If somebody needed to be worked over, or tuned up, they would change the report to reflect they had resisted arrest,” Borel said. “In court, if you charge someone with resisting, it became their word against the word of the officer.”

The final morning witness was Russell “Toby” Hebert, a former long-time friend of Ackal’s who served in several positions within the IPSO, from chief deputy to head of Internal Affairs. Hebert said his tenure in IA was a tumultuous one as Ackal insisted he and his investigators “not pile up a lot of paperwork” following excessive force complaints.

“Take it easy,” Hebert said Ackal told him. “If some of the guys were roughing up people, he didn’t want to hear about it. ‘Let them kick *advertiser censored* and take names’ he said.”
 
Federal jury finds Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal not guilty of civil rights violations

A jury at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Shreveport found Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal, 73, not guilty on all four*charges in connection with the 2011 beatings of five pretrial inmates in a chapel, two other instances of beatings and*encouraging*deputies to delete reports

http://klfy.com/2016/11/04/federal-...-ackal-not-guilty-of-civil-rights-violations/
 
So glad he's not related to me, since nearly half the town is my 2nd, 3rd or 4th cousin. On All Saints' I only leave flowers on my immediate family in the old cemetery, otherwise I'd be broke. Glad they've brought him to justice but the mystery writer James Lee Burke has put them in the crosshairs many times in his novels in the 1990s & early 2000s.
 
I've attached the new documentary of the Victor White case. It aired Monday night on Investigation Discovery. It also touches upon the corrupt IPSO. Fast forward toward the end and you will see clips from a deposition of Sheriff Ackal by the White family's attorney. He is completely unhinged. He is still the sheriff of Iberia Parish.

Sugar Town | Sugar Town
 
I live in New Iberia. I recorded it, but have yet to watch the documentary.

And it’s time for a new sheriff. We have city police back as of July which is good.
 

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