Suspended Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope was in court today for a hearing in one of his pending criminal cases - and got served for another set of charges against him, The Current reports.
To read The Current's story, click here.
Back in January, the state ethics board filed charges against Pope, accusing him of taking more than $300,000 that he should have deposited into the Marshal's accounts. But they haven't been able to formally serve him, despite numerous attempts.
Today, ethics officials showed up to the parish courthouse and served Pope while he was there for a hearing on a criminal indictment accusing him of 17 counts of malfeasance in office for supplementing his income with more than $84,000 in fees collected by his office - even though the AG already had said he couldn't use it for anything but office expenses. He also faces another indictment of two more malfeasance charges; that one accuses him of using marshal office funds to pay for travel, then asking the city-parish to reimburse him and pocketed the money.
In October, Pope was found guilty on one count of perjury and three counts of malfeasance in office, stemming from a public records dispute with The Independent.
After his felony convictions, Pope was suspended from the office of City Marshal until all his appeals are exhausted. If the convictions stand, Pope will be removed from office. Michael Hill, a former federal magistrate and police officer, currently is serving as City Marshal for Lafayette.
