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Louisiana State Police internal affairs officers are investigating allegations that a trooper beat a handcuffed man he had arrested for driving while intoxicated after bringing him to the Terrebonne Parish jail.
A law enforcement source confirmed that federal investigators are seeking to determine whether the man’s civil rights were violated.
Bryan K. Johnson, 25, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was booked July 26 for DWI, improper driving, not driving on the right, unlicensed operation and resisting a police officer with force or violence. His bond is currently set at $2,500 and he remains incarcerated.
The accused officer, Trooper First Class Tracy Plaisance, continues on duty without restriction pending an internal investigation, said Capt. Doug Cain at State Police Headquarters in Baton Rouge.
“They did get a use of force complaint and have an active administrative investigation,” Cain said.
According to reports provided thus far to investigators, Plaisance and an unidentified rookie trooper whom he was training brought Johnson to the jail. Their patrol car was stopped in the sally port, which is a closed area where officers discharge prisoners.
After Johnson was removed from the patrol car’s back seat, Plaisance allegedly elbowed him; then in a booking area Johnson, still handcuffed, was allegedly assaulted again. He was taken into another closed room where a breath-test machine is kept. There, after the handcuffs were removed, more violence allegedly occurred.
Johnson was transported by the troopers to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center after Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government infirmary employees said they would not treat him at the jail, according to one account of the events, which could not be independently verified. Any injuries Johnson may have suffered were not considered life-threatening, according to family members, who claim their inquiries of law enforcement officials resulted in their being told his visit to Chabert solely involved the taking of blood and urine in connection with the DWI charge.
Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said his correctional officers have been accused of no wrongdoing in connection with the case and that their contact with Johnson was limited to booking, classification and processing after the troopers were done with him.
“We are cooperating fully with all investigations,” Larpenter said.
In addition to statements from jail personnel, the sheriff’s office has provided copies of video from surveillance cameras in the booking and sally-port areas. The closed room where the last of the alleged violence occurred has no surveillance camera. It is ordinarily used to magistrate jail inmates on the morning following arrest, by closed circuit.
Among items observed by investigators is a metal file cabinet with a dent allegedly caused by Johnson’s head.
Johnson, who lives in Baton Rouge, is a former Terrebonne Parish resident. He works at ABC Auto Auctions, where he details cars. He is on parole in connection with a crack cocaine distribution conviction for which he served prison time.
His mother, Deanne Wilkerson, is also a former Terrebonne resident now living in Baton Rouge. She acknowledged that her son was argumentative after troopers stopped him, and that a tow truck driver who came to pick up his car said he repeatedly demanded to know why he was stopped.
“He had a head injury and they kicked him on his left arm, and there was damage from the handcuffs being too tight,” said Wilkerson, who processes medical records work for a Baton Rouge hospice.
“When they brought him to the jail, the trooper was talking stuff to Bryant and Bryant was talking back stuff to him,” Wilkerson said, recounting the events as told to her by her son. “He said the trooper told him, ‘You’re talking now but wait until we get you in the room.’ When (her son) stood up, (the trooper) elbowed him again and (Bryant) fell to the ground.”
In the magistrate room, according to Wilkerson’s account, “The trooper took him by the handcuffs and hit him into the filing cabinet.”
Wilkerson said her son has been questioned by Internal Affairs officers. She has confidence at this point that the investigation will be fairly conducted, though initially she had doubts.
“Now that I have a lawyer and people that I can rely on, I have some faith,” she said. “Every time I called someone they were defending the trooper. I tried to get the police report to find out the trooper’s name, and who had towed the car.”
She alleges that when speaking with one Troop C sergeant she was met with troubling resistance when asking for a report.
“He said, ‘What do you need that for?’ I said to him, ‘My son was beaten by the police, one of your troopers, and I need to know who they were,’” she stated, adding “he said, ‘Nobody is going to give you that information,’ and he said nobody is going to talk to me. Well I was determined somebody is going to talk to me.”
Wilkerson said she contacted Jerome Boykin, president of the Terrebonne National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who found her account credible.
Boykin said he notified the Troop C Commander, Capt. Darrin Naquin, as well as federal authorities in New Orleans. He still has unanswered questions.
“I have a problem with the trooper that (Plaisance) was training not coming forward when a crime was committed in his presence, and that he didn’t do anything about it,” Boykin said.
The trainee, according to Cain, is not a target of the investigation to his knowledge. He is not aware of whether the trooper-in-training made any report of the alleged acts of his mentor.
Attempts to reach Plaisance were not successful. A trooper since 2006, Plaisance had spent at least six years before that as a police officer in Tennessee. He has been recognized at least twice as a Troop C “Trooper of the Year,” in 2007 and 2008.
“Most troopers go to work every day and do a good job,” Boykin said. “But there is a small percentage who abuse authority and any further information we get we are going to turn it over to the FBI. …I truly believe Mr. Johnson’s civil rights have been violated.”
