Former Monroe officer indicted on civil rights and cover-up charges

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - A former Monroe police officer who was arrested after being accused of using excessive force against an arrestee has been indicted on federal charges.

The charges, detailed below, stem from his alleged involvement in the arrest of Timothy Williams in 2020. (Bodycam video above.)

The United States Attorney’s Office Western District of Louisiana issued the following news release Thursday morning:

MONROE, La. - Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams announced that a federal grand jury in Shreveport, Louisiana, has returned an indictment charging Jared Desadier, 43, with assaulting an arrestee in Ouachita Parish. The two-count indictment charges Desadier with willfully depriving an individual of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242, and with witness tampering in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1512(b)(3).

The indictment alleges that, on April 21, 2020, Desadier, while acting in his official capacity as an officer of the Monroe Police Department, used unjustified force against an arrestee by kicking him in the area of his face and head, and that the assault caused bodily injury and involved the use of a dangerous weapon (a shod foot).

The indictment further alleges that Desadier attempted to cover up his misconduct by engaging in misleading conduct towards his supervisors. Specifically, the indictment alleges that after the arrestee complained in the presence of supervising officers that he had been assaulted, Desadier claimed that he had not touched or harmed the arrestee and blamed the arrestee’s injuries on a fall.

If convicted, Desadier faces a maximum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment for the deprivation-of-rights offense and 20 years of imprisonment for the witness tampering offense.

An indictment is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The FBI is investigating the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian C. Flanagan and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Thomas Johnson are prosecuting the case.

Click here for background on the Timothy Williams case.

Desadier’s indictment follows a similar case in which a former Louisiana State Police trooper is involved.

Former trooper Jacob Brown was indicted on Sept. 23 by a federal grand jury for his alleged part in Bowman’s arrest on South 3rd Street in Monroe. Body camera footage showed Brown striking Bowman 18 times in the head with a flashlight in approximately 24 seconds. Bowman could be heard screaming between blows on the body camera video obtained by The Associated Press. The beating left Bowman with a broken jaw, three broken ribs, a broken wrist and a gash to his head that required six staples to close.

Brown’s case and others like it led to an Associated Press report about legacy hires who can do no wrong in the state police force.

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