57°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

Drug cases tossed out amid ongoing probe into arrested officers' investigations

3 years 1 week 3 days ago Thursday, March 18 2021 Mar 18, 2021 March 18, 2021 7:36 AM March 18, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

UPDATE: As of March 29, the District Attorney's office has dismissed 640 drug charges. 

BATON ROUGE- District Attorney Hillar Moore said his office threw out three drug cases this week tied to two Baton Rouge Police Officers who were arrested for criminal activity.

Hundreds more could also be thrown out as Moore and his office goes through the cases that Officers Jeremiah Ardoin and Jason Acree worked on. Both officers have been with the Baton Rouge Police Department for 12 years. Acree has been with the narcotics division for six years and Ardoin has been with narcotics for four years.

In December, Ardoin was arrested for possession of stolen things. He began cooperating with his bosses, giving them a lot of information. That ultimately led to Acree's arrest for stealing drug evidence.

Ron Haley is representing Ardoin. He said the Police Department is in the process of vetting out the information that they received from his client.

"If other information of bad acts are verified, I expect other arrests," Haley said.

"This is about trust and trust in the system," District Attorney Hillar Moore said. "Without trust we have no system."

Moore said his office is currently prioritizing cases involving individuals who are sitting in jail based on Ardoin and Acree's work. They will then take a look at cases awaiting court hearings and possibly look at adjudicated cases.

Some of the cases that could be dismissed may include cases that don't just involve drugs.

"On drug cases, we find a lot of drug dealers have guns and they are linked to other crimes," Moore said. "So, that has the potential to affect other cases. That's a case-by-case decision."

As tough decisions have to be made, prosecutors are trying to restore confidence in the justice system for people arrested by officers accused of wrongdoing themselves.

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days