A former officer with the city’s police department is claiming Police Chief Esdron Brown tried to force him to attend mandatory religious counseling sessions, and when the officer refused, Brown retaliated with disciplinary actions that included threats of suspension or job termination.
Patrick Marshall, who resigned from the Port Allen police force in November 2017, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Brown, the city and its police department.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, comes a month after a city councilman raised questions about the high turnover rate in the city’s police department since Brown took office in 2013.
Since January of 2013 Brown has asked City Council to approve hiring 28 police officers. Fourteen of those hires are no longer with the department, having quit, been fired or retired.
The police department is budgeted for 16 full-time police officers.
Brown on Monday claimed he hadn’t seen the lawsuit, but when asked to comment on Marshall’s accusations, said all the allegations are untrue.
“He’s just bitter because he got written up for something, that’s why he started all of this,” Brown said. “Before that he didn’t have a problem. But he got disciplined more than once. That’s when they try to find something to get you on.”
Brown wouldn’t say what Marshall was disciplined for, just that it wasn’t related to his allegations in the lawsuit.
Marshall worked for the Port Allen Police Department for 11 years before he resigned, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges Brown made statements to Marshall and the other officers that he wanted a “saved” department, posting notices about mandatory meetings with the chaplain that officers were required to attend every month or be reprimanded.
When Marshall told Brown he was uncomfortable with attending the mandatory religious counseling sessions, the lawsuit claims, the police chief told Marshall he would either get suspended for 90 days or face termination.
After not being able to attend a scheduled session on Oct. 24, 2017 because his son was sick and he had to stay home to care for him, Marshall informed Mayor Richard Lee that Brown had created a hostile work environment for officers who weren’t aligned with the police chief’s religious beliefs.
Marshall also told the mayor that Brown would overlook officers for promotions and specialized training if they didn’t share his religious views, the lawsuit alleges.
After Marshall’s meeting with the mayor, the lawsuit alleges, Brown ordered Marshall to attend anger management classes and then canceled Marshall’s pre-approved request for time off during Thanksgiving.
Brown on Monday called the allegations in Marshall’s lawsuit an “exaggeration.”
Brown said he did mandate that officers attend monthly meetings with the chaplain but those meetings weren’t religiously oriented.
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