Brian Pope was in trouble even before he was sworn in as Lafayette's City Marshal in January 2015.

Candidate Pope, in late 2014, missed the deadline to file personal financial documents with the Louisiana Ethics Administration and filed his campaign finance report 11 days late, for which he was fined.

That was just the warm-up for things to come.

Three years later, the 25-year veteran of the Marshal's Office is headed to court Monday where a judge has been asked to revoke his probation related to a civil case he lost for refusing a newspaper's public records request.

Pope also faces felony criminal perjury and malfeasance charges, and raised eyebrows and ire Dec. 11, the day a recall movement against him failed, by having his deputies arrest the recall co-chairman on a 20-year-old warrant for issuing worthless checks.

How it began

On Oct. 6, 2015, a media advisory about a press conference on the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's election and immigration policy was distributed from Pope's work email address.

A news conference was held the next day at his office. Pope, wearing his uniform and surrounded by uniformed deputies, criticized Sheriff's candidate Mark Garber. Pope alleged Garber, a worker's compensation attorney, appeared on Honduran television advising illegal immigrants to come to the United States and file worker's compensation claims.

Pope backed Garber's opponent, Chad Leger, in the race. A related news release listed the contact person as Pope, with his office telephone number.

The Independent Weekly news organization filed a public records request with Pope seeking emails that might be related to the media advisory and press conference. Pope denied the request, citing an attorney general opinion protecting private emails.

Lafayette attorney Gary McGoffin, on behalf of The Independent, disagreed.

RELATED: Pope's former attorney indicted on perjury charge

Pope hired attorney Charles Middleton who said there were no emails matching the newspaper's request. (Middleton was indicted a year ago for lying to a grand jury regarding a motion he wrote to get Garber's divorce file unsealed.)

The Independent filed a civil lawsuit in 2015 and 15th Judicial District Judge Jules Edwards ruled in favor of the newspaper. Pope's representatives turned over some documents in response the The Independent's first public records request. But not a second request.

The newspaper obtained the second set of documents through a public records request to Lafayette Consolidated Government. In a deposition, Pope allegedly denied deleting emails, which then were produced by LCG.

Also in the deposition, Pope said he used resources of his elected office to prepare a fundraising letter and mail packet for his campaign. He testified that he believed he could use the resources of his elected office for his personal campaign.

Civil penalties

Pope was ordered to pay the newspaper $100 a day for every day he didn't comply with the public records requests, plus attorney fees. The judge found Pope personally responsible for the payments.

In March 2016, he was found in contempt for not complying with an earlier order to produce documents the newspaper requested. Pope was ordered to pay $18,800 in penalties, more than $71,000 in attorney's fees and more than $6,000 in other costs.

Judge Edwards ordered the city marshal to serve 30 days in the parish jail but suspended all except 168 hours, which was served on house arrest. He also was placed on probation and ordered to perform 173 hours of community service teaching others about public records laws.

Pope and the newspaper eventually settled the civil lawsuit for $205,000. A $184,000 payment was made on his behalf by the marshal's office insurer.

He also paid $21,197 with a personal promissory note which he defaulted on.

At a hearing in May, Pope said under sworn testimony that he didn't feel personally obligated to repay the $184,000 to the marshal's office.

Meanwhile, Pope is supplementing his $82,000 annual salary with $120,000 in civil fees from city court that are paid directly to him. His predecessor, Nicky Picard, did the same, despite a 2011 attorney general opinion that prohibited it.

In September, Edwards issued an amended contempt judgment when it appeared Pope wouldn't finish his community service in time. He was ordered to do 173 hours of litter abatement instead of public instruction.

Criminal charges

All of the above is related to the civil case against Pope stemming from his refusal to comply with the public records request.

In April 2016, a criminal complaint was filed against Pope with the district attorney's office.

In November 2016, he was indicted on perjury and malfeasance charges stemming from the public records case and his sworn testimony about using his office for his campaign.

His felony trial is set for Feb. 20, but is likely to be delayed.

MORE: Second judge rules Pope's private emails are admissible

The latest

Earlier this year, a petition drive to recall Pope was initiated. It fell short by the deadline, which was Dec. 11.

That same day, Pope's 53rd birthday, the city marshal had his deputies arrest recall drive co-chairman Steven Wilkerson on a bench warrant issued 20 years ago related to four issuing worthless check charges totaling less than $200.

Meanwhile, Pope filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 1 against former LCG CAO Dee Stanley and former City-Parish Attorney Michael Hebert, claiming they unlawfully accessed his computer and email to comply with The Independent's public records request.

RELATED: Marshal's Office arrests recall co-chairman

On Monday, Pope is expected in Edwards' court again to explain why his probation on the contempt charge should not be revoked.

McGoffin argues in court documents that Pope's probation should be revoked because he still has not completed his community service, used public funds to pay The Independent for his public records violation, pays himself with funds an attorney general said he's not entitled to and didn't release a copy of an attorney general opinion on the matter.

CONTEMPT HEARING UPDATE: Judge says Pope attempting to delay hearing