HPD sued by a top cop

Houma police officials are being sued by a high-profile officer who alleges that a complaint he made about a supervisor unjustly resulted in a retaliatory suspension and violation of his right to free speech, along with other alleged wrongs.

Dallas Bookenberger’s attorneys filed suit last week in New Orleans federal court, alleging in the court papers that he has whistleblower status and protections related to that there were breached.

The suit names Terrebonne Parish, the Houma PD, Police Chief Dana Coleman and two sergents, Cory Johnson and Terry Boquet.

Coleman refused comment on the case but has acknowledged that Bookenberger was placed on administrative leave.

“This is an issue in which a police officer and public employee blew the whistle on a police department’s alleged misconduct,” said one of Bookenberger’s New Orleans-based attorneys, David LaCerte. “That sort of statement should be held to the highest degree of scrutiny. No one should be sent home and retaliated against for doing what is right.”

The named individual defendants, the suit alleges, conspired to violate Bookenberger’s civil rights while in official positions of authority. They also state in the written complaint that he was threatened with prosecution for a crime he did not commit, as a means of silencing his complaint, and that when he was suspended the action was enforced in an unseemly manner. The actions were allegedly callous and calculated, the court papers state.

“Particularly, the defendants violated the First Amendment and state law by suspending the plaintiff in humiliating fashion, investigating him without limit and with unlimited resources, and threatening malicious prosecution,” the complaint states. “This encompassed actions by defendant Johnson in his violations of law, defendant Coleman in his refusal to investigate the violations committed by defendant Johnson, and then defendant Boquet, through his investigation of unlimited scope and thinly-veiled threats of criminal charges and malicious prosecution.

The court papers also contain a powerful caveat regarding the potential consequences that could occur should certain allegations be proven. If one of the defendants — Cory Johnson — is proved to have spoken untruthfully or destroyed evidence as the court papers allege, then his credibility could reasonably be brought into question during cases that stem from his arrests of people, or could be the cause of prior cases being revisited.

PHANTOM PICKUP?

Trouble began, according to the complaint, when Bookenberger was on patrol and alerted by radio that a vehicle was traveling recklessly on Grand Caillou Road and took up a position for interception. The vehicle never appeared. Johnson allegedly excoriated Bookenberger, for actions the latter alleges were not improper. Bookenberger also alleges that the report of the vehicle was in itself false and designed to place him in a situation where a complaint against him could be made by the superior.

The court papers tell Bookenberger’s version of events, beginning with the dispatch involving a white, full-sized pickup at 10:32 p.m.

“As the suspect vehicle reportedly traveled from Woodlawn Ranch Road toward the city limit, Bookenberger took a position at the 600 block of Grand Caillou near Cleveland Street. He planned to use his department issued hand-held radar to clock the speed of the pickup if it approached and if there was a need to do so.

No such vehicle appeared and six minutes after the initial call Bookenberger told the dispatcher the incident was complete, that there was no white pickup and that he was available for a new assignment.

Sgt. Johnson, the court papers say, ordered Bookenberger via radio to stay put.

When he arrived at Bookenberger’s location, the court papers say, Johnson was told the officer that his method of responding was inadequate, in an alleged rant laced with expletives.

Bookenberger, the court papers state, suspected at that point that the call was falsely generated by or on behalf of someone at HPD, based on the reluctance of dispatch to assign a case number — which they eventually did — and Johnson’s alleged behavior.

If that suspicion is true, the court papers suggest, Bookenberger and the public at large were placed in danger from the potential of his pulling over a vehicle matching the description which had violated no law.

The suit acknowledges that an alarmed Bookenberger responded “in kind” to the alleged vulgarity.

Johnson allegedly activated his body camera during the encounter “while mouthing further obscenities, in an effort to escalate the situation.”

ALLEGED FALSE REPORT

Bookenberger, the court papers allege, believed that the entire episode was designed to “reflect poorly on his service record, then informed Johnson of his intent to report (him) and all of the circumstances surrounding the situation to his chain of command.”

Johnson allegedly persevered with attempts to escalate the situation, making reference with his hands to his own body cam “while angrily smirking, giggling inaudibly, and mouthing expletives.”

Further puzzled because Johnson allegedly never stated why he objected to how Bookenberger answered the call, Bookenberger filed a formal grievance against the sergeant, which included allegations of criminal statute violations.

Specifically, Bookenberger alleged that Johnson “created a false report of a crime in progress,” specifically the story of a reckless driver in a white truck, and by so doing also violated HPD rules.

Soon after Bookenberger’s grievance against Johnson was submitted, Bookenberger was suspended, according to the court papers. Chief Coleman said he is not suspended, but on “administrative leave with pay.”

According to the court papers Bookenberger was stripped of his badge, gun and identification card, as well as his patrol vehicle. He was escorted home by another officer. Sgt. David Wagner, the complaint alleges, “stood by outside Plaintiff’s private residence while the Plaintiff was forced to retrieve and inventory any departmental equipment which remained in his possession.”

Sgt. Wagner allegedly instructed Bookenberger to “disrobe” and remove his body armor in his driveway in front of neighbors.

According to the lawsuit, Bookenberger asked Chief Coleman whether he had read the complaint filed against Sgt. Johnson. Coleman, the court papers say, told Bookenberger he stopped reading the 14 page complaint at the second page.

Failing to initiate an investigation as to Johnson’s actions, the court papers state, are a violation of the “Police Officer’s Bill of Rights. As an officer placed on leave, although Bookenberger receives his pay he is not eligible for assignment to “extra duty” work referred to as details, a lucrative income source for many of the department’s officers. Since Bookenberger was placed on leave Johnson has been covering his previous off-duty details.

STATE LAW VIOLATED?

On June 22, the 25th day of Bookenberger’s suspension, the officer was asked to return to HPD headquarters by Internal Affairs Investigator Terry Buquet. The meeting was audio-recorded.

During that meeting Buquet allegedly told Bookenberger that no recording was made of the encounter with Johnson, that the sergeant had feigned doing so. The suit alleges that there was indeed a recording and that it was destroyed, which if true would indicate several violations of state law.

Buquet allegedly told Bookenberger that discrepancies in record-keeping had been found concerning the officer’s work on federal block grant programs, the type that in the past had resulted in other law enforcement officers facing federal criminal charges. Bookenberger denies that allegation and alleges in the court papers that the statement was a further attempt to pressure and intimidate him regarding his complaint against Johnson.

One reason the lawsuit is in federal court, attorneys said, because that complaint is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.

A Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan, Bookenberger has spent 16 years in law enforcement, first as a Terrebonne Parish deputy. He left there amid allegations of mis-reporting drug money seizures, a claim which ultimately was determined to have no substantiation according to a Louisiana State Police investigation. A lawsuit was filed against him on the complaint of Woody Prosperie and Beth Couvillier of Montegut, as well as against Sheriff Jerry Larpenter.

The suit alleged that Bookenberger knocked at the home of Prosperie and Couvillier while in uniform, claiming he was investigating a report of drug activity. Money which Prosperie and Couvillier claimed was obtained fishing was seized, allegedly a total of $4,531. A little more than $2,000 was logged into the Sheriff’s Office records. Both Prosperie and Couvillier were arrested on drug-related warrants. The lawsuit they filed has since been dismissed as per a settlement, a review of the record shows. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Bookenberger also drew public attention before that, in connection with his alleged verbal treatment of Mechanicville residents while working at the Sheriff’s Office. Complaints indicating problems identifying Bookenberger by name, some officials recall, were aired at a Mechanicville community meeting in 2012. At the time of Bookenberger’s hire at HPD a background investigation was done, which Chief Coleman said contained no information preventing his hire by the city.

PROUD RECORD

Attorneys said Bookenberger has had a sterling record at HPD, where he has worked since 2016.

He has, the court papers state, handled 557 cases since a new record-keeping system came on line in February. The next closest officer handled 403 cases and most handle in the low 200 range.

He has issued, the court papers say, “more tickets and summons than any officer in the entire Houma Police Department, issuing 219 tickets and summons since February when the new reporting system became operational.”

The next closest officer, records cited in the suit maintain issued 151 tickets and summonses and only five officers in the entire department issued more than 50 during this timeframe.

Bookenberger rates as “outstanding” according to an in-house evaluation system and since his hire was promoted to “Police Officer First Class.” The formula used to determine his effectiveness and conduct, the attorneys state, gives him a quotient of 1.08, believed to be the highest of any officer in the department.

The defendants, the lawsuit maintains, “impeded on the constitutional rights of the defendant, has subjected an honorable law enforcement officer to behavior so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and should be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

Dallas Bookenberger