UPDATE: Marksville officer a defendant in civil rights lawsuit

UPDATE: 5:22 P.M. Jason Brouilette, one of two Marksville Police officers not charged in Tuesday's shooting that left a 6-year-old boy dead, was named a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit filed earlier this year.

Brouilette was one of four law enforcement officers on the scene of the Tuesday night shooting of a father and his child.

Dontrale Demarko Phillips, an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, filed a federal lawsuit in July against a list of Alexandria police officers, including Brouillette, and the district attorney's office.

Phillips claimed he was arrested without a warrant or probable cause and charged with three counts of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and illegal use of a weapon. He also claims he was denied his rights after his arrest and during his trial and sought $7 million in damages.

The lawsuit was dismissed in September because he had previously filed multiple lawsuits, including three that were dismissed as frivolous, malicious or because he failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted.

-- Claire Taylor, The Daily Advertiser

UPDATE From reporter Melissa Gregory: Memorial for Jeremy Mardis at the scene of his shooting death in Marksville. Plans are underway for a caravan Monday from the site to his funeral in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

UPDATE: 4:30 p.m.

City marshals decide what kind of tests and background checks to conduct before hiring employees, former Lafayette City Marshal Earl “Nickey” Picard said Saturday.

Candidates for jobs with his office had to pass a lie detector test, psychological evaluation, physical and background check before going to the police academy.

“I don’t know what marshals in these small municipalities do,” he said.

Picard, who was defeated last year after serving several decades as city marshal, said he required his deputy marshals to be trained.

If a deputy marshal wants to obtain post-certification, he needs 48 hours of additional training and must past two exams. In return, a deputy marshal can earn an additional $500 in pay from the state.

Picard, who has been following the tragic events in Marksville and doesn’t know any of the law enforcement officers involved, said some things don’t make sense.

“One of these guys made lieutenant? He’s got lawsuits all over the place,” he said. “I’m confused. Who do they work for? One works for the marshal’s office in Alexandria and the marshal’s office in Marksville and the Cheneyville police department?”

Regarding a dispute over whether the city marshal’s office can give out traffic tickets, Picard said they have the same duties as city police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

“They can write tickets anywhere in their jurisdiction of Marksville,” Picard said.

-- Claire Taylor

ORIGINAL STORY

MARKSVILLE — Six-year-old Jeremy David Mardis died Tuesday night while still strapped into the front seat of his father's car, and now two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals are facing charges in his death and in his father's wounding.

Marshals Derrick Stafford, 32, and 23-year-old Norris Greenhouse Jr. — also a full-time Alexandria city deputy marshal — were arrested Friday evening by Louisiana State Police. Both were charged with second-degree murder in Jeremy's death and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of his father, Chris Few.

"It was the most disturbing thing I've seen," Col. Mike Edmonson, Louisiana State Police superintendent, said about the video taken from the incident. "I will leave it at that."

Stafford and Greenhouse were among three Ward 2 marshals and a Marksville Police Department officer involved in the shooting around 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Taensas Street. Few remains in serious condition, on a respirator, in the intensive-care unit at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria.

Both Stafford and Greenhouse were booked into the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center. The arrests were announced at a 10 p.m. press conference held at the Marksville Fire Department on North Main Street. As the media was being briefed, the men were being booked into jail.

The men were moonlighting as Marksville marshals. Stafford was a Marksville lieutenant with eight years of service. It's unknown how long Greenhouse has served with the Alexandria marshal's office.

The Town Talk left two messages earlier Friday for Alexandria City Marshal Terrence Grines, but they were not immediately returned.

This is not Stafford's first brush with the wrong side of the law. In October 2011, he was indicted by a Rapides Parish grand jury on two counts of aggravated rape.

The indictment alleged that he had raped two different victims, one in September 2004 and the other in February 2011. But, in May 2012, the case was dismissed without prejudice, which meant that the charges could be brought again.

Stafford and Greenhouse were among officers named in a federal lawsuit that claims they violated the rights of Ian Fridge of Ascension Parish on July 4, 2014, when they confronted him while he was visiting Marksville for an Independence Day festival. In the suit, Fridge claims the officers taunted and antagonized him, pinned his arms behind his back, handcuffed him and used a Taser on him. The lawsuit is still pending.

The other two officers involved in the shooting are Lt. Jason Brouillette, a 13-year veteran of the Marksville department, and Kenneth Parnell, a five-year veteran of the department. Brouillette also was moonlighting as a Ward 2 marshal, while Parnell was working with the department. He had been called to the scene as a back-up.

Marksville officers wear body cameras, and Edmonson said the video investigators viewed was from a body camera.

No charges have been filed against either Brouillette or Parnell, but Edmonson said the investigation still was continuing. He said that since the shooting, investigators have conducted "countless" interviews, analyzed the body camera video and audio from a 911 call.

"We know a lot about it. This is a complex case. It's got a lot of moving parts," he said. "Nothing's more important to me than the integrity of this case and that's why I don't want to go into details. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. had told The Town Talk earlier Friday that all the officers had been placed on administrative leave. A decision had not been made yet about whether they would be paid during that leave, he said.

Smith did not speak at Friday night's press conference.

On Thursday, he briefly had addressed the practice of officers working other law enforcement jobs. Smith said that, before this incident, he had no concerns about his officers working for the marshal's office. He said some of his officers do moonlight for other departments and that, as long as that didn't interfere with their jobs with his department, it was OK with him.

Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle III said he would file a motion soon to recuse his office from the case, letting the Louisiana Attorney General's Office handle it.

"The community needs to know this, that our district attorney's office and the State Police and our local police department, did not direct ... this investigation because of the relationship of one of the accused who was arrested tonight and one of our assistant district attorneys," said Riddle.

Norris Greenhouse is a civil assistant district attorney in Riddle's office. It could not be confirmed early Saturday whether Norris Greenhouse and Norris Greenhouse Jr. were father and son.

Riddle also said Friday night was the first time he'd heard details of the case.

Edmonson also urged residents who have information about either Stafford or Greenhouse Jr., or the incident, to contact State Police. He said there would be no more press conferences unless there was breaking news to share.

He also said that the community, police department and marshal's office would need time to heal after the shooting, asking people to come together for that.

"Justice has been done tonight, but the investigation is far, far from over."

Also not over is the dispute that's been simmering over the past several months between the city of Marksville and the city marshal's office. Mayor John Lemoine, in a letter dated Sept. 1, had requested an opinion from the AG's office about what authority city and Ward 2 Marshal Floyd Voinche Sr. and his deputies had within the city limits.

"We have reason to believe that the Ward 2 Marshal is issuing tickets inside the city limits without consent or approval of the Marksville City Council," reads Lemoine's letter. "We understand why the State Police can issue tickets without the approval of the Marksville City Council, but we are asking if the Ward 2 Marshal has the authority to issue tickets within the city limits without the approval of the Marksville City Council?"

"I don't know why he felt the need to start patrolling in city limits," Lemoine told The Guardian website. "It makes no sense to me."

Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. said during a Thursday press conference that officials were unsure whether the marshal had jurisdiction to operate within the city limits.

Voinche released his first statement about the incident on Friday, pointing to Louisiana revised statute 13:1881, which deals with the general powers and duties of marshals and deputy marshals.

He called the shooting death of Jeremy David Mardis "tragic," but insisted that Louisiana law allowed his deputy marshals "to write traffic tickets, make arrests and preserve the peace."

So far, the AG's office hasn't replied to Lemoine's letter.

The statement was emailed from H. Bradford Calvit, an attorney at the Alexandria firm of Provosty, Sadler, DeLaunay, Fiorenza & Sobel to represent him in the case.

Both Smith and Voinche have said all four officers are POST-certified (Peace Officer Standards and Training), which includes firearms.

When asked whether he had concerns about how Voinche was operating, Smith didn't answer. He described his relationship with Voinche as "good," but said he had not talked to him since the shooting.

Also at the Thursday press conference, Edmonson said no gun had been found in Few's car. Even with the arrests of Stafford and Greenhouse Jr., it still wasn't clear why the marshals were pursuing Few.

A woman who identified herself as Few's fiancee has claimed that she saw the incident start. Marksville resident Megan Dixon also denied that Few had a gun when she spoke up during the press conference.

"No, he didn't have a gun because I'm the reason why this all started," she said. "And I know what happened."

Dixon told The Guardian that she and Few "had bickered" at TJ's Lounge, which is on Spring Bayou Road not far from the shooting scene. She said she left with a friend and that Few also left to go pick up his son.

Dixon claims that, later, Few pulled up next to her car at a traffic signal and tried to get her to come with him. She refused, she said. As they left the signal, she said she saw two black and white marshal's cars coming from behind with their lights activated.

Few had had some sort of disagreement with one of the marshals involved in the shooting, Dixon told The Guardian. She did not identify which marshal.

Services and burial for Jeremy will be held Monday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.