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Lawyers face public intimidation charges for reaction after police kick in their door

Husband and wife lawyers in Crowley, Louisiana, have been indicted on charges of public intimidation for their reaction to police who kicked down their door in response to a 911 call from a neighbor.

Both lawyers—J. Clay LeJeune, 45, and Mitzi Mayeaux, 40—are well-known, the Advocate reports. Both were charged with public intimidation. LeJeune was also charged with resisting a police officer with force or violence and accused of threatening officers, the article says.

Police provided few details, but the couple’s lawyer, Barry Sallinger, said the charges relate to a May 25 incident, the story says. The neighbor who called police said a girl or woman in the lawyers’ back yard may have been screaming “help me,” adding that it may be nothing, according to Sallinger.

In reality, Sallinger said, the voice was that of the couple’s daughter, who was calling “Daddy” because she wanted her father to help capture the family dog, which had escaped from an electronic fence.

“The indictments come on the heels of a home invasion and how a good family reacted to it,” Sallinger told the Advocate. “The LeJeune family will aggressively fight to demonstrate their absolute innocence and the restoration of their civil rights as would any American family.”

The couple has hired a separate lawyer to file a civil suit against the police, according to lawyer Clay Burgess, who told the Advocate the couple retained him in the matter.