Judge dismisses lawsuit against City of Ville Platte

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In 2015 a federal investigation into operations at the Ville Platte Police Department and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office has led to the filing of several federal lawsuits against the City of Ville Platte and its police department.
However, a recent ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Hanna could prevent the complainants from receiving compensation for the investigative hold they may have encountered at the hands of the VPPD.
The reason for the judge’s recommendation to dismiss the claims was based on the fact that the plaintiffs were freed from jail more than a year before their lawyers sued the City of Ville Platte and the EPSO.
The law gives an individual one year from the date of an incident to file a lawsuit.
In this matter, three of the four plaintiffs in the suit were released from investigative holds more than four years before the suit was filed.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys however, argued that “a one-year statute of limitations shouldn’t apply in this case because people were told to keep silent.”
Judge Hanna however stated that “there is no allegation that anyone stopped the plaintiffs from attempting to file a lawsuit at any time.”
In a court document dated November 7, 2017, it states, “It is ordered that this action is hereby dismissed without costs and without prejudice to the right, upon good cause shown within sixty days, to reassert the claims if settlement is not consummated.” This means that the plaintiffs’ attorneys have 60 days to file another suit similar to the previous one filed.
Earlier this month, a separate lawsuit filed against the city and its police chief Neal Lartigue was settled. The suit accused officers with the VPPD of arresting three individuals in 2014 and jailing them without explanation.
At this time, the terms of that settlement have not been disclosed.