LAFAYETTE - Scott Police Chief Jerry Carpenter planted fake cocaine in a car to justify seizing $55,000 cash found during an interstate traffic stop, a state district judge decided Monday.

Fifteenth Judicial District Judge John Trahan found Carpenter guilty on one count malfeasance in office and one count filing false police reports in connection with an April 1996 traffic stop on Interstate 10.

Carpenter faces up to five years in prison on each count. Trahan set sentencing for 9 a.m. March 15.

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