The curious case of a civil servant

18th May 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Michael Radcliff
The Louisiana Weekly Contributing Writer
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Editor’s Note: This is the third and final article of a three-part series, the first of which appeared in the April 11 issue of The Louisiana Weekly

Mr. Travis Perrilloux was initially scheduled to go to court on the four assault charges in March of 2009. His case was continued and rescheduled for April; in April it was continued again and rescheduled for May. In May it was rescheduled again and continued once again for June… His case was continued virtually every month for more than a year before the judge decided to dismiss all of the remaining charges.

“It was like a game to them,” Perrilloux explained to The Louisiana Weekly. “Each time they rescheduled the case, I had to take that day off from work to hang out in the courthouse. Each time they re­scheduled the court date it was like ‘C’mon back man’ — otherwise, if I had missed even one of the re-scheduled dates, they could say that I forfeited my bail and they could seize my parents’ house. It was like they were saying to me ‘We’re not giving you an inch, not one single inch.’ On one occasion, they actually tried to say that I had missed a court date, but my attorney intervened and they backed off. This was a three-year nightmare.”

Perrilloux went on to say, “and as a result of all of this, even though cash advance in Cali. every charge was either refused or dismissed, both the NOPD Crisis Unit as well as the Sheriff’s Office in essence said to me ‘We no longer have a need for your services.’ I lost several of my licenses and certifications, most of which I have been blessed to get back. But it was the emotional toll that all of this had on me and my family — that was the hardest to deal with.

“Man,” he added, “at one point my wife was so stressed out that she actually asked me if I had slept with someone on the Kenner police force’s wife or girlfriend, for them to do all that they did to ruin me. After we filed suit against the City of Kenner’s police department, it was like they were saying to me ‘Behave or we will hurt you’… and they did everything they could to do just that. Aside from the effects all of this had on my wife and kids, during this ordeal my dad passed away. My dad was very proud of me and the man that I had become. I didn’t want him to leave this world worried about me; I really wanted him to see all of this resolved before he died.”

The Louisiana Weekly contacted the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office and spoke with Assistant D.A. Barron Burmaster, to find out why the assault charges against Mr. Perrilloux were eventually dismissed. four seasons cash loans contact Mr. Burmaster explained that he did not have Perrilloux’s files before him but that he would locate the files and get back to me. More than four weeks have passed since that conversation and Mr. Burmaster has not returned the phone call.

Several calls were also made to the Kenner police department — to no avail. Out of four individuals The Louisiana Weekly sought to contact on Kenner’s police force, only Lieutenant Wayne McInnis actually returned a call. When informed that The Louisiana Weekly was seeking information on the Travis Perrilloux cases, he simply referred The Louisiana Weekly to Detective George Hoffman’s voice mail and Detective Hoffman to date has yet to return this writer’s call.

No one on the Kenner police department’s staff was made available to comment on the Perrilloux case.

The reason all of the charges were either refused or dismissed was that “[t]hey simply didn’t have a good case,” Perrilloux’s attorney told The Louisiana Weekly.

A subsequent background investigation revealed that in addition to the Jefferson Parish D.A. not “having a good case,” the Kenner Police Department quite possibly had credibility issues with their alleged victims. The chief complainant had recently been arrested for alleged forgery and felony theft.

Another of their witnesses, according to Mr. Perrilloux, was “a friend of the chief complainant” who had also been recently arrested for alleged which payday loan companies have closed forgery and reportedly has an extensive rap sheet.

In addition, according to Perril­loux’s attorney, “the D.A. had a difficult time simply trying to locate their witnesses.”

On Oct. 9, 2009, U.S. District Judge Helen G. Berrigan tossed out Travis Perrilloux’s suit against the City of Kenner, Chief Steven Carraway and Detective George Hoffman. The reason, according to her finding, was that in Perrilloux’s initial filing of his lawsuit, Perrilloux did not “specify which provisions of Louisiana law or the Louisiana Constitution he alleges the defendants violated.” She therefore granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss based on “qualified immunity.”

Qualified immunity as defined, shields government officials from liability for the violation of an individual’s federal constitutional rights. However, Perrilloux’s petition can be corrected and re-filed.

In May of 2010 the final assault charges against Travis Perrilloux were dismissed. Since then, Perrilloux says he has spent “a lot of my free time with my family and trying to get my life back on track.

“We have to make up for lost time,” he added. “While I don’t volunteer as much anymore, every so often you can find me at the New Orleans Mission serving food.”

This story originally published in the April 25, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.