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Former interim Monroe Police Chief Reggie Brown and former Monroe Police Sgt. Charles Chuck Johnson appealed their terminations before the Civil Service Board Thursday evening.
Brown and Johnson were fired last November by now-Monroe Police Chief Vic Zordan, who alleged that the two purposely avoided forwarding an excessive force case, involving Timothy Williams and former officer Jared DeSadier, to the Louisiana State Police until after the city s mayoral election last July.
Last month, Carol Powell-Lexing, Brown s attorney, filed a motion to recuse Civil Service Board chairman Hardeman Cordell and Monroe city attorney Steven Oxenhandler.
Powell-Lexing claimed Cordell s past actions, dating back to 2017, rendered him incapable of being fair and impartial regarding Brown s hearing.
The Jackson, Miss. architectural firm the city of Monroe hired in 2017 for $800,00 to examine the feasibility of building a new arena to replace the aging Civic Center failed to produce its findings until pressured by Mayor Friday Ellis in recent months.
In the years before he left office, Mayor Jamie Mayo promoted the construction of a $109-million arena and conference center in downtown Monroe. Mayo never revealed how the city would raise the millions of dollars needed to build a new arena. He also dismissed any possibility of renovating the Monroe Civic Center.
After defeating Mayo in the mayoral election in July, Ellis nixed Mayoâs plans to build a new arena and suggested upgrading the Civic Center complex. He sought a resolution to the cityâs existing agreement with M3A Architecture of Jackson at that time.