BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A Louisiana police officer accused of submitting a false police report has been fired after spending months on paid administrative leave.
Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola Jr. tells The Advocate 29-year-old Michelle Patterson was terminated Friday after being booked on injuring public records and malfeasance in office in October. A district attorney’s office didn’t file charges within the period allotted by state law.
Patterson responded to a call in September about a woman possessing marijuana. According to body-camera footage, Patterson confiscated a marijuana cigarette and issued the woman a misdemeanor summons. Coppola says Patterson deleted the initial report and wrote a new description of the events after documenting the events accurately.
The original misdemeanor summons was found in Patterson’s police vehicle. It’s unclear if she has a lawyer.
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