Candidate claims bias in police actions

• By KIMBERLY VETTER AND JARED JANES
• Advocate staff writers
• Published: Sep 23, 2008 - Page: 5B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A Republican candidate for the District 11 Metro Council seat said Baton Rouge police officers were “shamelessly biased” when they issued him a misdemeanor summons Sept. 8 on a count of simple battery.

Scott Lemoine, in a news release Friday, said investigating officers didn’t interview witnesses and sided with the alleged victim, Kerry Clark, because he is a retired officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

“It was a real strange situation,” Lemoine said in a telephone interview Friday. “I’ve never been in anything like it.”

Sgt. Don Kelly, a Police Department spokesman, said Monday that Lemoine can file a complaint with the department’s Internal Affairs Division if he feels he was not treated fairly.

Lemoine said he did so late Monday.

Lemoine was issued the summons after he allegedly struck Clark with a newspaper about 10:45 a.m. at 9111 Interline Ave, police have said. The incident occurred after Lemoine and the retired officer argued about some work Lemoine did on his taxes.

The officer who issued the summons said in a police report that when she arrived “it appeared as if he (Lemoine) was trying to get into an altercation.”

Lemoine said he was merely trying to get Clark off his property. Lemoine said he asked Clark at least 20 times to leave after Clark began screaming profanities at Lemoine’s staff.

When Clark refused to leave, Lemoine said, “I tore his return in half and tossed it into his chest. The retired officer said I assaulted him and he called several of his friends on the police force.”

Lemoine claimed in his news release that five police units, three from the department’s Special Response Team, showed up.

Kelly said police received a call from Clark after they got a call from a “concerned citizen” who indicated there might be a weapon involved in the incident.

Although Kelly did not know how many officers responded to the incident, he said it would not be unusual for several officers to respond to a call about a disorderly person who possibly had a weapon.

Clark, who denied confronting Lemoine, said he did not tell police on the phone or at the scene that he was a retired police officer.