LAFAYETTE, LA – Louisiana’s Sunset Police Department Chief Luis Enrique Padilla has been indicted and arrested for allegedly using unreasonable force and causing injury during the detention of a person, according to the Associated Press.
AP News wrote the Sunset chief is accused of “handcuffing a person without legal justification during an investigation” in December 2023, and “reportedly forcefully twisted the person’s thumb and wrist, causing injury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news release Tuesday.
On Tuesday of this week, Padilla appeared before the U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst; it was here Padilla entered a plea of not guilty, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“He was released on a $30,000 bond with conditions, including no contact with witnesses or the alleged victim and no possession of firearms,” AP said.
During a call made to the Sunset Police Department regarding any updates, the person who answered stated the police chief had no comment on his arrest; the person then disconnected the call when asked about the police chief’s employment status, according to AP News.
“The Federal Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent Padilla, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but no one was available Wednesday to discuss the case,” AP reported, noting
Padilla faces a sentence up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Between the years of 1999 to 2002, Padilla served as police chief in Sunset, St. Landry Parish, according to AP News. After losing the 2001 election for police chief, he did not run again until 2014, where he won with 53 percent of the vote, The Advocate reported.
AP News also wrote Padilla was arrested during his campaign for police chief “on a charge of impersonating a police officer for allegedly identifying himself as the Sunset police chief, but prosecutors did not pursue the aforementioned charges after Padilla won the election.
