From [HERE] A white police officer in a small East Feliciana Parish town is poised to face a jury this summer on charges that he uttered a slur and choked a Black teenager in a gas station parking lot last spring.

But as a trial looms for former Jackson Police Officer Travis Depew, a new complaint by the teen’s family in federal court argues that fault for the incident doesn’t rest solely on the officer.

By looking past earlier misconduct cases Depew racked up in the years leading up to the encounter, police leadership and town officials also bear blame for his actions, the suit argues.

Depew turned himself in to East Feliciana sheriff’s deputies in May 2021 — more than two months after he was accused of using the N-word and choking an underage Black teenager outside Main Street Market in Jackson, a town of about 3,300 people. The teenager, whom court records say was trying to buy food from the store with several friends, was neither arrested nor issued a misdemeanor summons after the incident.

Now, Depew is set to be tried on simple battery and malfeasance charges in June, according to the East Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court. He ultimately lost his job with the Jackson Police Department amid the criminal probe.

The complaint filed Feb. 22 by attorneys from Baton Rouge law firm Haley & Associates, however, says he shouldn’t have held the job in the first place.

Public records show Depew had a “pattern and practice of misusing state power and of violating citizens’ rights” years before the incident in the gas station parking lot, the complaint argues.

Police Chief Fred Allen, the police department and the town of Jackson were culpable for the officer’s actions because they “did not properly train, supervise, and/or discipline” Depew in his time with the department, the complaint says.

Allen and town administrators did not immediately return phone calls Friday.

John McLindon, an attorney representing Depew in the criminal case set for trial in June, said he was confident about his client’s chances at trial given “inconsistencies” in the witnesses’ statements.

Attorneys for Haley & Associates started requesting records about Depew’s work history in March of 2021, WBRZ-TV reported at the time.

Records they later obtained show Depew was fired by the Pointe Coupee Sheriff’s Office after being arrested for stalking and malfeasance in 2017, as described in the newly filed complaint. Chief Pointe Coupee Sheriff's Deputy Brad Joffrion confirmed Depew lost his post as a deputy in the department after repeatedly stalking a person he'd been prohibited from approaching — a warning his superiors reiterated multiple times, Joffrion said — ultimately leading to his arrest.

Records of Depew's arrest and firing in Pointe Coupee were later expunged, the suit says, after he had landed a new job in Jackson.

While he was an officer in Jackson in the fall of 2020, the suit says Depew slammed a Black man’s head into the ground during a traffic stop. Two months after that, he allegedly used a flashlight to beat another Black man during a traffic stop.

“The Town of Jackson, the Department and Police Chief Allen knew or should have known about Defendant Depew’s pattern of behavior unbecoming of a police officer,” Haley & Associates lawyer Ashley N. Greenhouse wrote in the complaint.

The suit asks for damages and attorneys’ fees in unspecified amounts and requests that a jury decide the case against the town, police chief and police department.

It’s not unusual for police departments to face blame over long standing discipline patterns in civil lawsuits about specific cases of alleged officers misconduct, like the one filed against Depew and the town of Jackson.

An ACLU lawsuit filed last fall against the Louisiana State Police and DeSoto Parish Sheriff over the brutal 2019 arrest of a Black man, Jarius Brown, named conduct within LSP that has "been present for at least a decade and has been implicitly endorsed by Louisiana State Police (“LSP”) troopers and officials."

Similarly, plaintiffs in suits against the New York Police Department after 2020's protests against police brutality have claimed department policies allowed patterns of misconduct.

In general, it’s more common for victims of officer misconduct to reach settlements in civil court than it is for officers to face criminal charges in those cases, experts say.