A West Monroe woman is suing Ouachita Parish Sheriff Jay Russell and Deputy Timothy G. Fischer in federal district court after Fischer allegedly entered her home illegally in search of another individual.
Leslie L. Stuart claims in her petition filed in Louisiana’s Western District in Monroe that Fischer, after being told that the person he was looking for, Mark Jones, was not at her home, drew his weapon. When she told Fischer he needed to leave her property, he placed her in handcuffs and placed her in his patrol car.
Fischer later released her from his vehicle but then placed her, while still handcuffed, in her home where she remained cuffed “for a significant period of time” as the deputy entered her home without cause and without a search warrant and “began rummaging about.”
Her lawsuit claims that despite the deputy’s claim that he was look for an individual, he “went through any number of complainant’s personal possession(s) and items, damaging a great many of these items, including a number of ‘collectibles’ that complainant had accumulated over the years.”
She is claiming damages from batter committed on her by Fischer who she claims, along with Sheriff Russell, is also guilty of:
- Deliberate indifference for legal standards in treating suspects;
- Disregard for probable cause, a history of recklessness and disregard for prohibitions against use of unnecessary for[ce];
- Failing to adequately train law enforcement personnel in the proper exercise of their duties and authority, and encouraging and sanctioning improper practices;
- Failure to promulgate proper training policies, practices and procedures to prevent occurrences such as the one which complainant alleges;
- Facilitating, condoning and approving such conduct and turning a blind eye towards same with a deliberate indifference to the effect that said policies, practices and procedure{s} have upon the constitutional rights of person.
Stuart, through her attorney, Lavalle B. Salomon, takes the position that neither Russell nor Fischer may claim qualified immunity because the conduct described in her petition “violates established law and is not objectively reasonable. The sheriff’s representatives used excessive force in their detention and treatment of complainant, who was not a suspect and not a criminal or perpetrator.”
Qualified immunity is a judicially created doctrine that shields government officials from being held personally liable for constitutional violations—like the right to be free from excessive police force —for money damages under federal law so long as the officials did not violate “clearly established” law.
The actions of Russell and his deputy, she claims, “were not related to any legitimate state objective, but were in bad faith, malicious, and with deliberate indifference to complainant’s rights, and with callous and reckless disregard for the same.
Louisiana Voice 
Ouachita police have done this every since jay Russell became the sheriff and I personally know the department has come in my home without search warrant and placed me in cuffs and in the back of a cop car. They dragged my spouse out of our home for no reason at all because she didn’t resist or anything and she weighs 120 with four big grown men dragging her. We have pictures of the bruises they left all over her! They also do dealings with all the big time local drug dealers in this town. We have proof of that as well! We haven’t done anything out of fear they’ll use our past against us because we don’t have the best record due to alot of the dirty dealing done under the table to get us arrested so we stay quiet because we don’t know what other fake charges they might put on us if we were to speak out!