Ex-o fficer booked in sex count
LAFAYETTE — A former Lafayette Police officer was booked Thursday on a count of sexual battery for allegedly inappropriately touching and kissing a woman against her will while on duty last year.
Jackie Hagan Jr., 34, of Sunset, also faces a lawsuit filed this week by the woman, who alleges the incident happened in November after she had called police to report a fight in downtown Lafayette.
Hagan resigned from the Police Department in January, Lafayette Police spokesman Cpl. Paul Mouton said.
Mouton said there was an internal affairs investigation into the incident, but he declined to discuss the outcome.
Prosecutors filed the sexual battery charge against Hagan after a recent crime lab analysis determined that his DNA could be linked to DNA found inside the woman’s bra, according to the lawsuit and an affidavit filed by a detective in the case.
Hagan denied the allegations, according to the detective’s affidavit.
The warrant for Hagan’s arrest was issued June 7.
He had remained out of jail until Thursday, and it was unclear whether Hagan was aware of the warrant until questions arose this week about why he had yet to be booked.
The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office received the warrant on June 12 and then immediately forwarded it to the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office to serve because Hagan lives in Sunset, Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Kip Judice said.
“For lack of better words, it probably slipped through the cracks,” Judice said.
Hagan turned himself in Thursday, was booked and was then released after posting $20,000 bond, Judice said.
In her lawsuit against the former officer, the woman said Hagan responded when she called 911 to report a fight downtown.
The woman, who was not involved in the altercation, alleged that after she gave a statement about the incident, Hagan insisted that he bring her home.
The woman alleged in the lawsuit that she went with the officer despite her reservations and that once they arrived in front of her home, the officer pulled up her shirt and kissed and bit her breasts before she pushed him away and ran inside.
The woman is not being identified because of this newspaper’s policy of generally not reporting the name of victims of sex crimes.
Hagan’s attorney, Thomas Alonzo, said he could not discuss the details of the case.
“We are going to let the judicial process run its course,” Alonzo said. “He is entitled to a fair trial, and he is going to get one.”
If convicted on the sexual battery charge, Hagan faces up to 10 years in prison.
The woman’s lawsuit, filed against Hagan and city-parish government, seeks unspecified damages for medical expenses and pain and suffering.