Sorrento council fires assistant police chief
BY KATE STEVENS
Special to The Advocate
August 23, 2012
SORRENTO — The Sorrento Town Council fired Assistant Police Chief Billy Ballard on Tuesday, citing Ballard and another town police officer and their alleged roles in an ongoing police investigation.
Ballard had no comment after a nearly 90-minute executive session that preceded his dismissal, but Sorrento Police Chief Earl Theriot threatened legal action on behalf of Ballard.
“We’ll see you in court,” Theriot told the Town Council.
Mayor Wilson Longanecker, Jr., presiding over his first Town Council meeting since foot surgery placed him on medical leave in February, declined to comment on what was discussed during the executive session.
Longanecker said he was “very uncomfortable” with how the meeting ended and had hoped the Town Council would postpone acting on the issue Tuesday night and continue it at a future meeting.
“It didn’t seem right,” Longanecker said of Ballard’s dismissal.
After the council voted to take no action against Officer Ricky Smith, who, like Ballard, was brought to a back room to meet with the Town Council in executive session, Councilman Randy Anny made a motion to fire Ballard.
This motion prompted Theriot to ask how the council could come to this determination without his recommendation as guaranteed him under the Lawrason Act.
Theriot said he had gone back with the Town Council and Town Attorney Donovan Hudson during the executive session but had only discussed Ballard’s two week, unpaid suspension that was due to end on Sunday.
There had been no discussion of termination Tuesday night, he said.
But Hudson said Theriot had his chance to discuss Ballard’s future and, in a 4-0 vote, Councilmen Milton “Needlenose” Vicknair, Marvin Martin, John Wright and Anny all voted to fire Ballard.
Councilman Chad Day did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
Theriot said Ballard had been on suspension for “violating a policy,” but declined to comment further on the matter.
“Do they want to shut the Police Department down?” Theriot said after the meeting.
This is the second time in less than two weeks the Town Council has fired a Police Department officer.
On Aug. 9, the Town Council dismissed Officer Cory R. Prine after he admitted to violating police policy by demonstrating the effect of a Taser stun gun on a Louisiana Technical College student in 2009 after the student asked him to do so.
The Sorrento Police Department is now down to four full-time police officers, said Ballard.