Lawsuit objecting to police chief's qualifications dismissed

Judge Thomas Fuselier dismissed, on Thursday, December 18, the challenge to Ville Platte Police Chief Neal Lartigue’s qualifications to run for chief of police, based on his place of residence, brought by Linton Fontenot and Glenn Leleux, who ran against Lartigue for chief of police in this year’s elections.
The arguments between the attorney for defendant Lartigue, Brent Coreil, and for the plaintiffs, Walter Clawson, involved whether the qualifications of Lartigue could be challenged after the deadline.
Coreil said statutes specify that an objection to the qualification of a candidate can be made within seven days of the time set aside for qualification, which was August 20 through 22. That would make the deadline to object August 29. The plaintiffs’ petition asserts that Lartigue does not live inside the city limits of Ville Platte. The plaintiffs’ attorney said the deadline for contesting the election expires after the time plaintiffs filed their petition.
Coreil said parish registrar of voters’ documents show that Lartigue has been a resident of North Chataignier Street since 2005. Clawson asserted that Lartigue resides outside Ville Platte city limits, on L’Anse De Cavalier Road.
After the attorneys stated their cases, Judge Fuselier said the plaintiffs’ petition concerns Lartigue’s qualifications to run for Ville Platte police chief and not matters involving election irregularity, such as voter fraud. Because of that, the plaintiffs’ petition objecting to Lartigue’s qualifications to run for chief of police was filed after the August 29, deadline and was invalid.