Pubdate: Sun, 18 Aug 2002
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2002 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Ryan Goudelocke, Advocate Staff Writer

POLICE CHIEF ARRESTED IN DRUG INVESTIGATION

Carenco Police arrested Grand Coteau's police chief after midnight Saturday 
during an ongoing drug investigation.

Raymond Simmons was booked into Lafayette Parish Correctional Center in 
Lafayette soon after his arrest on one count each of possession of Schedule 
IV narcotics and malfeasance in office, booking records show. He posted 
$20,000 bond just before 9 a.m. and was released. "When it comes to this 
type of deal, we've got no choice other than to do our jobs," Carencro's 
Police Chief Timmy Duhon said Saturday evening. He said they had heard that 
a law enforcement officer from St. Landry Parish was buying illicit 
prescription drugs from a particular house.

Carencro Police had been watching the house for at least four months, 
hoping to catch suspects. Duhon said Simmons was buying Lortab, a 
prescription painkiller, for a "bedridden" friend afflicted with severe pain.

"We're going to contact a few doctors Monday to let them know what's going 
on," Duhon said. "What we understand is, (the people selling drugs were) 
going around to different doctors; they'll get 120 from one, 90 from 
another." He declined to identify the occupants of the house, the address, 
the sellers or buyers, hinting that more arrests may happen soon. A woman 
who answered the phone at Grand Coteau's Police Department Saturday evening 
declined comment.

She said she did not know how many people are on the police force in the 
St. Landry Parish city, which has a population of 1,040. St. Landry Parish 
Sheriff Howard Zerangue, reached by phone while traveling, said he did not 
have the particulars of the case in front of him. He referred questions to 
Chief Criminal Deputy Laura Balthazar, but she did not return repeated 
telephone messages.

In 1996, Simmons was suspended without pay, but not arrested or charged 
with any crime, after the shooting death of a suspected convenience-store 
robber near Grand Coteau's Town Hall.

Clarence Barlow, 25, died in a hail of gunfire about 8 a.m. in late June 
1996. Simmons was a police officer in Grand Coteau when Barlow allegedly 
robbed a store in neighboring Sunset, then fled.

Ballistics tests determined another officer's bullet killed Barlow, but 
controversy over the incident roiled nearby towns for weeks, inciting 
marches, a business boycott and accusations of racism.

Grand Coteau's aldermen reinstated Simmons in a 3-2 vote several weeks 
after Barlow's death.

The date of his hiring as police chief was not available.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart