The mayor and
police chief of Springfield were indicted Thursday on four felony counts each
of conspiring to hide a woman’s 2011 citation for driving while intoxicated,
state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said.
Mayor Charles
Martin, 62, and Police Chief James Jones, 48, are each accused of obstruction
of justice, criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, injuring public records
and criminal conspiracy to injure public records, according to the four-count
indictment returned by a Livingston Parish grand jury.
The charges
stem from a conspiracy by Martin and Jones to conceal state evidence and to
obstruct the prosecution of a suspect involved in an April 2011 DWI arrest,
Caldwell said in a news release.
The pair were
arrested in July 2011 on warrants obtained by the Louisiana Office of Inspector
General following an investigation into the incident, Inspector General Stephen
Street said Thursday.
According to
the arrest warrants, Springfield Police Officer Ryan Weaver arrested Tyra
Jones, of Hammond, on suspicion of driving while intoxicated on April 10, 2011.
Tyra Jones
allegedly had a blood alcohol level of 0.185 percent, or more than twice the
legal limit of 0.08, and was booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center
on DWI and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to the warrant.
Martin and
Chief Jones later admitted, during an interview with Inspector General and FBI
investigators, to concealing the arrest, the warrant states.
According to
the warrant, the mayor admitted to illegally attempting to hide the Tyra Jones
arrest after receiving phone calls from two close friends about the incident,
and the police chief admitted to concealing the DWI report from the district
attorney and state Department of Motor Vehicles after conferring with the
mayor.
The Inspector
General’s Office also obtained a recording of a conversation between Chief
Jones and Weaver in which the police chief said the original DWI report and
related documents would be placed in a “closed” file at the police department,
the warrant states.
“The audio also
records Chief Jones further stating that, if anyone asked about the file, he
would say that he submitted it to the District Attorney’s Office and was
unaware of what happened to it after he turned it in,” the warrant states.
According to
the warrant, Weaver repeatedly refused to participate in the concealment of the
DWI arrest.
After multiple
meetings with the mayor and police chief, however, Weaver began to fear
retaliation and agreed to issue Tyra Jones a reckless operation citation
listing Springfield Town Hall as the court, the warrant states.
“On the
recording, Chief Jones makes an effort to assure Officer Weaver that the plan
was legal, saying that the mayor had authority to amend misdemeanor DWI
offense,” the warrant states.
Louisiana law
prohibits Mayors’ Courts from judging DWI cases, the warrant states.
“This case is
about public safety, pure and simple,” Inspector General Stephen Street said
Thursday. “Public officials should be doing everything they can to help keep
drunks off the road, instead of using their positions to obstruct them from
being prosecuted.”