Accused of trying to cover up a beating, Baton Rouge police officers plead not guilty (2024)

Four Baton Rouge police officers accused trying to cover up the beating of a man in custody pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Douglas James Chutz Jr., Todd Thomas, Troy Lawrence Sr. and Martele Jackson each face charges of malfeasance in office and either obstruction of justice or conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.

All four entered not guilty pleas to the indictments when they stood before Commissioner Jermaine Guillory during arraignment hearings inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse.

The four officers were charged jointly, and their case now transitions to District Judge Collette Greggs' courtroom. Prior to Thursday's arraignment, she set an Oct. 1 court date for Jackson, who is being represented by Baton Rouge attorney Shannon Batiste.

Jackson, 38, is charged with obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office. One of his past attorneys identified Jackson as the whistleblower who alerted officials about the incident, which involved officers from BRPD'snow-disbanded Street Crimes Unit.

Guillory set the next court date for the three other officers at Thursday's arraignment. Thomas, Chutz and Lawrence are slated to appear before Judge Greggs on Oct. 2.

Thomas, 32, faces charges of obstruction of justice, two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction and three counts of malfeasance in office. His attorney is John McClindon.

Chutz, 44, retained defense lawyer Kyle Kershaw. He was indicted on charges of obstruction, criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction and two counts of malfeasance in office.

Lawrence, who is three weeks shy of his 50th birthday, stood with his attorney, Brent Stockstill, at Thursday's hearing. The police department's former second-in-command entered not guilty pleas to criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction and four counts of malfeasance in office.

"We have a lot of issues with the evidence that we've seen so far—liability, credibility and accuracy," Stockstill said outside the courtroom.

Prosecutors sought charges against a fifth officer as part of the District Attorney's investigation. Agrand jury in June could not agree on whether to indict Jesse Barcelona, 48, on counts of obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office.

The panel pretermitted his indictments, leaving prosecutors with the option to bring up the charges again.By Thursday, the state had yet to re-indict Barcelona.

The four officers' charges stem from a September 2020 confrontation after police arrested Baton Rouge rap star NBA Youngboy and rounded up several of his associates during a music video shoot, where police say multiple guns were found.

The four officers allegedly tried to strip-search one of the suspects inside a bathroom, at one point using a stun gun. Arrest records say Lawrence Sr. — then the leader of the department's Street Crimes Unit, and later promoted to deputy chief — told the suspect, "You see this guy here, he is about to knock the f*** out of you.”

Body camera footage caught one of the officers striking the suspect, but the officers worked to hide the footage, arrest records say. The officers then allegedly wrote a letter falsely claiming the body camera was missing or lost.

In addition to the officers' arrests, multiple lawsuits have accused Baton Rouge police of aggressively strip-searching suspects with little evidence, among other abuses. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the department's policy for strip-searching was unconstitutional, requiring officials to demand a higher standard of proof before using the invasive tactic.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome disbanded the Street Crimes Unit in August 2023, also shutting down a narcotics interrogation center in an unmarked warehouse facility that some officers referred to as the “BRAVE Cave.”

In a four-page statement following the hearing, attorneys for Thomas, Chutz and Lawrence alleged then-BRPD Police Chief Murphy Paul mishandled the department's internal investigation last year, unfairly targeting those three officers.