The attorney for fired Lafayette police officer Pablo Estrada is pushing for recently appointed Lafayette Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board member Kenneth Boudreaux to recuse himself from Estrada’s termination appeal hearing on Wednesday.
Estrada, 35, was fired from the department effective Feb. 22, 2021 for use of excessive force. The use of force was tied to Estrada’s arrest of 25-year-old Dennis Lazard on Nov. 28, 2020.
While alone in the “cop room” at Lafayette Parish Correctional Center, Estrada pushed Lazard against a wall, punched him in the stomach with a closed fist and forced him to sit after Lazard refused to sit down while Estrada was filing booking paperwork. Lazard was booked into jail on counts of battery of a dating partner and resisting arrest.
The incident was brought to the Lafayette Police Department’s internal affairs division by deputies at the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Estrada said in an internal affairs interview he thought the complaint from LPSO was “motivated by political agenda,” per case documents.
The investigation was opened by Interim Chief Scott Morgan, and Estrada was fired by former Chief Thomas Glover after Glover took over as leader of the agency.
Estrada filed to appeal his termination in April 2021, but his hearing was delayed as 15th Judicial District Attorney Don Landry’s office considered criminal charges against Estrada. In May, a grand jury declined to indict the fired officer on counts of malfeasance in office and simple battery.
With the case moving forward Wednesday, Estrada’s attorney Allyson Melancon is pushing for Boudreaux, a former city-parish councilman and radio host, to recuse himself from the case or be recused by the board. Prior to his appointment to the board in August, Boudreaux focused a March 2021 radio show on Estrada’s case.
The episode, titled “Policing: You be the Witness, Jury and Judge,” aired during Boudreaux’s KNEK Magic 104.7 show “The Community Hour.” A video of the show is also posted to Boudreaux’s Facebook account.
In the episode, Boudreaux showed video of the incident that was acquired by local media, analyzed the dynamic between the two men, made comments about keeping Glover’s penalty in place and raised concerns about past actions by the fire and police civil service board.
Boudreaux was “...offering his personal and biased commentary regarding the dynamics of the event, law enforcement training, the presence or not of a threat to Estrada, and the propriety of the action taken by Estrada. All of his commentary was directed at and critical of Estrada, and are the very issues which this Board will be called on to decide,” Melancon argues.
She argues Boudreaux’s participation would be biased and “create, at the very minimum, the appearance of impropriety and deprive Estrada of the imperative of fairness.”
The motion will be discussed during Wednesday’s hearing.
Witnesses subpoenaed in the case include Landry, Lafayette Consolidated Government Chief Administrative Officer Cydra Wingerter, Glover, Morgan, current Chief Judith Estorge, Estrada, Estrada’s former sergeant, Estrada’s former partner, the four LPSO deputies involved in reporting Estrada, the Internal Affairs detectives who investigated the case, the training officers who reviewed the use of force and LCG Human Resources Director Rick Zeno.