Alex Lege, aka "The Cop Watcher," will not face prosecution for his arrest by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office on the night of April 11, when he was booked on charges of interfering with a police investigation for video recording a deputy involved in a routine traffic stop.
Alex Lege, aka "The Cop Watcher," will not face prosecution for his arrest by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office on the night of April 11, when he was booked on charges of interfering with a police investigation for video recording a deputy involved in a routine traffic stop.
The Sheriff's Office stands by its handling of the April 11 arrest, saying the deputies' decision - a supervisor eventually arrived on-scene and gave the go-ahead to proceed with booking Lege for his refusal to put away his camera phone - violated neither LPSO policy, nor state or federal law.
Though we did send an email seeking comment from District Attorney Mike Harson, his stance on the issue was unclear when our "Cop Watcher" blog hit theind.com early last week. That story included a transcript taken from Lege's April 11 video, LPSO's position that the charges were valid and an opinion from ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman, who pointed to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals as evidence that no laws were broken by the 18-year-old self-proclaimed "activist."
In an email received Monday, Harson responded to our previous inquiry on whether his office planned on prosecuting Lege, saying "No we do not."