Rookie Cop Quits Amid Allegations

28th April 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Matt Davis
http://thelensnola.org
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A rookie New Orleans cop has resigned after allegedly brandishing two guns during an off-duty altercation at a gas station earlier this month.

New Orleans Police Department Officer Devyn D. Swanier was booked with aggravated assault in the early morning hours on April 9, according to Arlinda Westbrook, the deputy superintendent who heads the department’s Public Integrity Bureau.

Westbrook said Swanier was involved in a domestic dispute with a couple at a Chevron gas station on Crowder Boulevard and Interstate 10 on Friday afternoon, April 8.

Surveillance footage shows Swanier brandishing his weapon at the man, and then going to his trunk to pull out a second weapon, Westbrook said.

The victim filed a complaint at the 7th District station, Westbrook said, prompting cash advance in Moreno Valley California the PIB to investigate. Swanier resigned after the PIB contacted him for a statement.

An NOPD report on Swanier’s arrest is not complete.

Swanier graduated from the police academy in August, three months after Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas joined the department vowing to clean up corruption.

Swanier was booked at Orleans Parish Prison and subsequently released on a $7,500 bond, records show. Meanwhile, an initial police report relating to the incident is nowhere to be found.

The NOPD’s records division referred The Lens to the 4th District in Algiers in search of a report. But a desk officer at the 4th District said a report was yet to be written, and that her supervisor, Sgt. Al Miller, was on the phone payday loans san pedro san antonio to the arresting officer to find out why.

“He’s back on the phone with the author of the report to see why it’s not ready,” Officer Qiana Lewis said.

Department procedure ordinarily requires officers to complete such reports before the conclusion of a shift.

Speaking with a reporter five minutes later, Miller said little.

“This is an active investigation therefore we cannot tell you anything about it,” Miller said, referring further questions to the department’s public-information office.

Swanier was assigned a public defender, Meredith Angelson. Her office declined comment citing a policy not to speak about individual cases.

This story published in the April 18, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.