Zachary Fitzgerald
A Patterson police officer has sued Mayor Rodney Grogan after a November 2016 incident where Grogan temporarily revoked the officer’s police commission card, citing ongoing insubordination, after the officer allegedly stopped the mayor for speeding.
Patterson Police Cpl. Kevin Stewart filed a lawsuit Nov. 6 against the city of Patterson and Grogan in 16th Judicial District Court, St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records stated.
Stewart’s attorney is Laura McJimsey Randall. Grogan and the city don’t have an attorney assigned to the case in court records.
The lawsuit was filed against Grogan both individually and in his capacity as mayor.
According to the lawsuit, on Nov. 14, 2016, Stewart, Sgt. Linda Span, Officer Rebecca Hayes and Assistant Police Chief Gary Stevenson were running radar for speeders and checking for seat belt violations on Catherine Street in Patterson.
Grogan was driving a vehicle that was speeding on Catherine Street, the lawsuit said.
Span told Stewart to go after the vehicle, which he did, the lawsuit said.
According to a police report that Police Chief Patrick LaSalle provided to The Daily Review shortly after the incident, Span reported a vehicle traveling 32 mph in a 25 mph zone passed Stevenson’s unit. Stewart said he walked around to the front driver side of his unit, and the radar detective determined the vehicle was traveling 34 mph, the report said.
“Grogan got out of his vehicle, yelled at Stewart, got back into his vehicle and sped off,” the lawsuit stated.
The following day, Grogan revoked Stewart’s commission card via a letter to LaSalle for reasons that included “ongoing insubordination and disrespect” toward the mayor, the lawsuit said.
Grogan revoked Steward’s commission card for two weeks, and the action did not allow Stewart to work as a police officer, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleged that Grogan had been heard calling Stewart a racial slur. Both Grogan and Stewart are African-American.
As a result of Grogan’s alleged “abuse of power,” Stewart suffered damages, including lost wages and mental pain and suffering, according to the lawsuit.
The day that Stewart returned to work, Dec. 1, 2016, he was trying to arrest a shoplifting suspect when the suspect allegedly stabbed him in the face with a steak knife. Stewart was back on the job later that night after being stabbed. The suspect, Timothy R. Duval of Patterson pleaded guilty in September to attempted second-degree murder in the case.
The lawsuit further alleged that the traffic stop incident and subsequent revocation of Stewart’s police commission card wasn’t Grogan’s first abuse of power.
“Other incidents with store clerks will be produced at the trial,” the lawsuit stated.
The (Morgan City) Daily Review first reported on the alleged traffic stop incident several days after it occurred. Both Grogan and LaSalle had called for investigations into each other’s actions at that time.
Grogan said the officers working duty in the Catherine Street area were operating an unauthorized checkpoint and “speed trap.”
Last year, Grogan said he contacted the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission to conduct an investigation into alleged abuse of a federal grant in connection with the alleged unauthorized checkpoint.
Grogan said in 2016 that he could not comment specifically on the incident, but said that the temporary revocation stemmed from ongoing problems he’d had with Stewart.
Grogan could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Also shortly after the incident, LaSalle said Grogan’s action to temporarily revoke Stewart’s police commission card was retaliation against Stewart for conducting a traffic stop on the mayor.
LaSalle said last year that he planned to communicate with all “investigative branches of law enforcement” in regard to what he called “a misuse of power” by Grogan.
On Wednesday, LaSalle said he had no comment on the case.