The Louisiana Supreme Court endorsed a 15-day suspension this week for a justice of the peace who was arrested for an altercation with a local police chief at the scene of a fire he’d set during a statewide burn ban.

Chris Lemoine, a justice of the peace in Avoyelles Parish, also serves as the volunteer fire chief in Cottonport. He granted himself an exception to the burn ban on Aug. 20, 2023.

Lemoine’s “controlled” burn spread after he and a fire captain went down the street and drank beers, according to the Louisiana Judiciary Commission. Lemoine then downplayed the fire’s impact with an emergency dispatcher, saying it was contained to an empty lot.

In reality, the blaze alit “an abandoned wooden structure, brush and trees, and electrical poles and lines,” the commission alleged.

A pair of Cottonport police officers arrived and sent photos to then-police chief Jennifer Lofton. When she arrived, Lemoine became aggressive.

He “admitted ‘it got a little bit out of hand after that’ and you put your finger in her face and might have slipped and touched her,” the commission alleged.

The police chief said Lemoine shoved four fingers into her chest, bruising her left pectoral muscle, and yelled that she was out of her jurisdiction “and to mind her own business.”

Lemoine admitted he drank “about six beers” within a three-hour period leading up to the altercation.

“I was burning a pile of brush on my property, the structure that caught fire was abandoned for years and it did belong to me,” he wrote in response to the misconduct allegations.

Lemoine says he was less than 100 yards away from the burn. He also disputed that he could have caused the injury Lofton alleged.

“Maybe when I put my fingers by her chest she took it as me pushing her but I did not by no means want it to go that far,” he wrote.

Lemoine could not be reached Thursday by phone or email. Lofton called the resolution “disgusting and disappointing,” a slap on the wrist.

“If it was me, it would be the worst punishment ever,” she said.

Three of the seven justices — William Burris, John Michael Guidry and Jay McCallum — also found the punishment for Lemoine too lenient in dissents.

The agreement the majority approved also calls for Lemoine to pay $839 in commission costs.

District Attorney Charles Riddle engineered a resolution of the criminal case against Lemoine, who was indicted on counts of battery of a police officer and resisting an officer. He entered a pretrial diversion program and later had the case expunged from his record.

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