A police chief was indicted after allegedly demanding oral sex from a woman in exchange for dropping a criminal case against her boyfriend.
Kenny Payne of Plaquemine, Louisiana, was indicted by a grand jury with five counts of malfeasance in office, said District Attorney Tony Clayton. Payne has previously denied allegations and refused to resign from his position.
"And the next step is, we'll arraign him, and will give him a motion date, then we'll hear his motions, and then we'll put him on the trial docket so they can have his day in court," said Clayton.
'Will You Give Me a BJ to Get Him Out of Trouble?'
According to court documents obtained by The New Orleans Advocate, Payne asked the woman to bare her breasts and perform oral sex on him.
"[Payne] said, 'I know you're willing to do anything to get him out,'" the woman previously told a local news outlet. "He took a sticky note off of the lady's desk. It was a big pack. And he wrote, 'Will you give me a BJ to get him out of trouble?' He took that sticky note off of there, and he did this [held it out] and showed it to me."
The next day, Payne ordered a lieutenant to delete text messages from the woman to the lieutenant reporting the sexual misconduct and Payne also requested Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stasi to not conduct or to cease conducting an investigation into him after the woman filed a sexual misconduct complaint against the police chief with the sheriff, the documents allege.
"He called the sheriff and asked the sheriff to drop the charges," said Clayton.
Payne Also Accused of Using City Storage Building for Personal Use
An additional count of malfeasance in office alleges he used a City of Plaquemine storage locker for personal use. He reportedly posted $250,000 bond after surrendering on Tuesday.
"The city has a storage facility and he stored a lot of his own personal stuff in there for years at the taxpayer's expense," Clayton noted.
Payne was appointed to the police chief position in May 2015 following the death of the previous chief Orian Gulotta. Payne, a Republican, won a special election for the position later that year in a runoff against Oscar Mellion.
