INVESTIGATIVE: Fired New Roads PD officer arrested for pawning service weapons also did it elsewhere
NEW ROADS - At 26-years-old, Stacy Paul obtained the rank of sergeant at the New Roads Police Department. Last week, he was fired -- after just seven months on the job -- and arrested.
"When you have an officer go rogue like that, renegade, rogue, he does something that's totally against his oath, he does something that's totally against the code of conduct as an officer, it has to be addressed and dealt with," said New Roads Police Chief Louis Hamilton.
Hamilton says he fired Paul and had him arrested because he had been pawning his service weapons.
He said in the last few weeks they had noticed a change in Paul's demeanor.
"When your work falls behind, you're not up to date, your uniform starts to sag, your appearance and attitude changes, we monitor and observe those things. Body postures and mannerisms."
At that point, Paul was hit with conduct unbecoming of an officer and became the subject of an internal affairs investigation which is how Hamilton says they discovered his missing weapons.
A check of a law enforcement data base found that Paul had pawned his duty hand gun and assault rifle five times at Pelican Pawn on Gardere.
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"When we conducted our investigation, we noticed there were other weapons that had been pawned, body armor as well."
During the investigation, Hamilton says they discovered Paul had pawned other weapons, so he contacted Paul's prior police chiefs at St. Gabriel PD and White Castle PD.
St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambeau says they discovered one of their guns had been pawned by Paul in September, but was back in his possession by the time he left the department. He says charges for that incident are pending.
White Castle PD Chief Harold Brooks did not respond to calls.
As for a motive, Hamilton says he's not sure why Paul needed the extra money.
"We supply extra duty. We supply overtime. We supply details, extra duty details. He had no need."
Paul was booked with five counts of malfeasance and has since bonded out of jail.