Eunice police officer sues Eunice Police Dept. for retaliation
21st June 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
A City of Eunice police lieutenant on June 4 sued the city, its police chief and two other police officers, alleging that the lieutenant suffered retaliatory actions against him for blowing the whistle on alleged corruption, misconduct and abuse within the city’s police department.
Eunice Police Lt. Michael Dunn, who has been with the EPD for nearly a decade, filed the suit with the help of the ACLU of Louisiana and the law firm Sidley Austin LLP in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
The lawsuit states that Dunn informed state, local and federal investigatory officials that he had witnessed widespread misconduct and corruption within the EPD – including alleged excessive use of force, mishandling of evidence, misuse of funds and neglect of prisoners’ medical needs – but that none of those appropriate took action after Dunn blew the whistle.
The lawsuit also alleges Dunn experienced retaliatory action from within the department after blowing the whistle on the misconduct – including the cutting of pay and work hours, threats of physical harm, the imposition of baseless disciplinary actions, and the recruitment of an individual to make false allegations of bribery to discredit the lieutenant – much of the retaliation coming from EPD Chief Randy Fontenot, who was listed as a defendant in Dunn’s suit.
ACLU of Louisiana Legal Director Nora Ahmed told The Louisiana Weekly that Lt. Dunn did what he believed was honest and right, but instead of being commended for exposing police corruption and misconduct, he was punished by his superiors and ignored by those who have the power to enforce accountability within the EPD.
“This is a police officer who tried to go through several avenues to get someone to listen, and none of those avenues worked,” Ahmed said.
She added that Dunn isn’t the only EPD who has witnessed the misconduct, but other concerned officers are scared to come forward out of fear that they will experience the same punitive retaliation suffered by Dunn, who she said is currently an officer in good standing in the EPD.
Ahmed said that after he blew the whistle, “his responsibilities have been stripped, as have his overtime and pay in retaliation because he went to outside authorities to look at concerns that he had with misconduct in the department.”
The suit also names EPD officers Victor Fontenot and Ryan Young, and the City of Eunice. The filing charges that Victor Fontenot and Young assisted Chief Fontenot in retaliating against Dunn.
In addition, the filing alleges that Chief Fontenot uses selective decision-making in enforcing the law, often letting slide criminal actions by the chief’s family, friends and political cronies. The suit also charges that Chief Fontenot looks the other way when his favored officers commit misconduct, while at the same time putting in the doghouse officers and subordinates who disagree with his actions or refuse to engage in corruption ordered by the chief.
Dunn’s lawsuit connects the alleged corruption and abuse he saw in the EPD with the widespread police misconduct currently being exposed and protested across the country, such as in Minneapolis following the murder there of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin.
“In 2018, after nearly a decade at the Department, Lt. Dunn felt that the system he believed in was breaking down,” the lawsuit states. “He observed pervasive corruption and misconduct by certain of his fellow officers … which the Department refused to address. Over the past three years, Lt. Dunn has notified state, local, and federal authorities about the misconduct he saw. He informed authorities that Chief Fontenot selectively enforces the law – protecting friends, family members, and political allies from criminal charges, and turning a blind eye to favored officers’ misconduct … Indeed, the Department’s practices are akin to the types of unconstitutional and dangerous policing that are currently subject to intense state and national attention, but ineffective policies at several levels of government allow Chief Fontenot to quash reports of misconduct and punish employees who report illegal activity.”
A receptionist for the City of Eunice last week told The Louisiana Weekly that no representatives of the city government would comment on the matter. However, Chief Fontenot did express his initial reaction to Dunn’s lawsuit in an interview June 7 with KATC-TV, which is based in Lafayette.
In the interview, the chief voiced indignation that such allegations have been leveled against him and his department.
“[T]he little bit that I have seen so far, there are allegations and that reports [sic] being made to other agencies against the EPD about those allegations,” Fontenot told the TV station. “If that’s the case, why haven’t those agencies taken any action? Those allegations are just not true. I think I run my department like any chief would. We do our best to enforce the law. People who know me best know that I support the Constitution. I tell my officers, whatever you do, don’t violate anyone’s constitutional rights. Handle it the way it’s supposed to be handled. I’m a big supporter of the [C]onstitution. Do it the right way, make it stick.”
Fontenot also commented to the Acadiana Advocate newspaper.
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Fontenot told the paper, adding that he hadn’t yet read the entire lawsuit but nonetheless disputes the charges.
“I completely deny all of that,” he said. “It’s a lot of baseless assumptions and allegations.”
Ahmed told The Louisiana Weekly that the defendants were in the process of being served with the lawsuit last week, and that the ACLU and Dunn will now wait for the defendants to file a response in U.S. District Court, an action she said might take a month or more.
Once that happens and the case gets into court, the ACLU attorneys will use the discovery phase of the proceedings to ascertain just how thoroughly the alleged corruption and misconduct has permeated the EPD and the city of Eunice.
“That might give us a sense of how deeply all of this runs,” Ahmed said.
This article originally published in the June 21, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
