A Lafayette Parish grand jury has indicted a former Lafayette Police Officer and declined to indict two others, in three separate incidents.
Marvin Martin was indicted on charges of second-degree battery and malfeasance in office in connection with an incident involving Jonathan Alvey, who has filed suit against Martin and Lafayette in federal court. The suit alleges that a Lafayette Police officer violated his civil rights in April 2021 by beating him in a parking lot. The officer, identified in the suit as Marvin Martin, is alleged to be a former UL football player and much larger than the plaintiff.
To read our story about his lawsuit, click here. Martin resigned from the police department.
The grand jury declined to indict Alex Ritter on a malfeasance charge in connection with a December 2020 incident, and declined to indict Pablo Estrada-Vasquez on battery and malfeasance charges in connection with the alleged beating of Dennis Earl Lazard in November 2020.
Lazard released video taken inside the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center that shows the incident between Estrada and Lazard. To see the video and read that story, click here. Estrada was fired. He had a pending appeal of that termination before the Lafayette Fire and Police Civil Service Board.
The Ritter case involves an incident that happened in near LPCC. At the time, a bill of information was filed against him by the DA's office accusing him of malfeasance in office and simple battery. Court records show the malfeasance charge has been dismissed. However, a pre-trial hearing is set for July in the battery case. We've reached out to the DA's office to try to ask what the status of the battery charge.
At the time, Lafayette Police told KATC that Ritter also had been terminated. To read our story about that, click here.
This is a developing story; we'll update it as soon as we have more information.
