Testimony continued Monday in Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope’s felony trial on perjury and malfeasance.
The majority of the trial on Monday focused on a deposition he gave back in 2015.
Gary McGoffin, attorney for The Independent Weekly which filed suit against the Marshal’s Office to obtain public records, was on the stand for much of the day.
McGoffin gave a timeline of the public records request to the Marshal’s Office leading up to the lawsuit which was eventually filed.
Monday afternoon, jurors watched the full deposition which was nearly three hours long. Throughout the deposition, the State paused to ask Gary McGoffin questions to further explain what was happening in that deposition, hoping to help the jurors understand.
During the deposition, Pope said that he is not a city employee and he acknowledged his office buys their own computers and servers.
In the deposition, McGoffin asked which email Pope uses for his office. He responded by saying he only uses the government email address for official business of the Marshal’s Office.
McGoffin also testified saying that Pope hired an employee to help with pulling public records. In the deposition, Pope said, “I let him do his thing, what he was hired to do.” Pope also said he’s not sure what was done differently than when he conducted the original public records request.
During cross-examination, Pope’s attorney asked if McGoffin had a personal vendetta against the Marshal. The defense attacking the integrity and motives of McGoffin.
During the State’s re-direct, McGoffin was asked if he tried to trick Pope. McGoffin said, “I asked specifically if Pope authored documents and he said, yes.”
McGoffin went on to say he gave Pope every opportunity to clear up any confusion on questions during that deposition.
Tuesday, the court is expecting to hear more testimony before the state rest and the defense will have an opportunity to call some of their witnesses.
Court will begin at 1:00 pm Tuesday.
