BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana State Supreme Court unanimously rejected a writ that would've prevented the use of body camera footage against three former BRPD officers that allegedly showed two of them discussing disposing evidence after roughing up a person.

The Supreme Court rejected the request without comment and did so unanimously. District Attorney Hillar Moore confirmed that, because of this ruling, the prosecution can use the body camera footage in court.

Former Street Crimes Unit members Douglas Chutz, Todd Thomas and Troy Lawrence Sr. are accused of roughing up a person during a 2020 strip search before disposing of a body camera video that documented the encounter. Lawrence briefly pulled his TASER, leading to multiple of the officers' body cameras being activated, court documents said.

According to court documents, while talking about disposing of another officer's body camera that caught the encounter, Chutz's body camera in the trunk of his patrol car caught him saying, "Cameras don't cost but $80," with Thomas agreeing to a plan to dispose of the evidence.

Thomas said, "I'm going to stay and f***ing smash it and scoop it up... and take it to the Mississippi River."

The camera that caught the encounter with the suspect was never docked, uploaded to the BRPD server or returned, court documents said. Chutz, however, later placed his camera that recorded the conversation into the docking station, and it automatically uploaded the video and audio content to BRPD's server.

In April 2025, the defense argued that the recording occurred without the officers' consent in a circumstance in which they had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Chutz and Thomas' cases were previously rejected unanimously in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In Lawrence's case, he still lost, but one of the judges said the lower court should have looked at the video before deciding.

Chutz and Lawrence are scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on June 25. Thomas has not been scheduled for an appearance at this time. All three, and Martele Jackson, are being tried for malfeasance in office.