Claiborne judge strips Homer police chief of duties, bans him from PD

By TIFFANY FLOURNOY

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    HOMER, Louisiana (KTBS) — Tuesday, a Claiborne Parish district judge stripped Homer Police Chief Van McDaniel from his capacity as the elected police chief.

The move by Second Judicial District Judge Walter May is a new condition of McDaniel’s $200,000 bond amount set Nov 6 when McDaniel was arrested by state police on charges of aggravated battery and malfeasance in office in response to indictments handed down by a Claiborne Parish grand jury.

The judge’s decision to have McDaniel surrender his weapons and all town property as well as prohibiting him from directing the police force is an overreach of his authority of an elected official who has not been convicted of a crime, McDaniel told KTBS. His attorney, Chris Bowman, plans an immediate appeal.

McDaniel pled not guilty to the charges during his April 1 arraignment and maintains his innocence. He’s continued to work as police chief since his indictment.

The indictment came weeks after a hotly contested the sheriff’s election in Claiborne Parish, in which McDaniel was a candidate. The charges are related to a 2022 tasing incident.

Two additional charges of malfeasance were added later. According to the attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting the case, one of the added charges is due to McDaniel allegedly not reporting a missing hard drive from the police department to the district attorney and the state auditor.

However, McDaniel countered that he did report the missing equipment to the mayor’s office and the state attorney general. The other charge is related to there allegedly not being a body camera policy within the department.

On Tuesday, the judge left McDaniel’s original bond amount unchanged and ordered it to reflect splits — $125,000 to the aggravated battery charge and $25,000 toward each malfeasance.

But then May took it a step further and added conditions of the bond, including barring McDaniel from entering the police department and communicating with employees of the department coupled with a string of other restrictions.

“If the chief law enforcement officer of the community is committing aggravated battery against the citizens of the community as indicated and in charge of cars, guns, tasers and everything else that can be used to intimidate witnesses, threaten everybody else, I don’t want him to be chief law enforcement officer of the community or have access to items that could be used to commit the alleged aggravated battery,” May said at the conclusion of the bond hearing.

May’s decision comes on the heels of a recent motion filed by McDaniel’s attorneys to recuse Judge May from the case, citing conflict. Another district judge, during a previous court hearing, refused to remove May from the case.

“…It’s in the transcript. It’s clear for anybody to read the number of tasings, the manner of tasings, when the spikes were shot and when it was a drive tase and all that sort of thing,” May continued.

The transcript May seems to be referring to is from a segment of the bond hearing held April 1, when the lead state police investigator in the case testified.

“…I’m concerned about the chief law enforcement officer of the town charged with battery of that nature having access to and control of officers who might testify, investigations of people that could be conducted who might have an impact on this case, but further the possibility of the use of the taser or any other weapon… The ability to use public transportation and other things of that nature while this case is pending,” May said.

“Obviously, I don’t have the power and shouldn’t have the power or the authority to say whether somebody’s the chief of police in the town of Homer. The citizens of Homer have made that decision and it would be absurd for me to try and say that I’m not going to honor that decision. but what I can do is make a condition of the bond of the defendant that he not be in possession of any weapons pending the conclusion of this case that might be classified as dangerous weapons, particularly including tasers,” May said. “That he not have access to the office of the chief of police of the town of Homer for the purpose of going into computers that might contain information relative to this case or anything of that nature or otherwise be in a position to use the extreme power that he has as chief law enforcement officer to potentially impact this case while it’s proceeding.”

“So, the defendant is not to go to the police department. He will not have use of the transportation related there to, no authority to direct police officers to take any particular action, and will not be in a position to swear documents related to any criminal case,” May said.

McDaniel has not been convicted on any of the charges and by law remains the elected chief.

“I’m an elected official. I’m innocent until proven guilty. What Judge May did was an overreach of his authority as a district court judge. Now he has rights as a district judge to impose certain conditions on bonds, but I’ve been out on bond since November and I haven’t had any incidents with any use of force or any incidents with any witnesses or anything that would warrant those type bond conditions…,” McDaniel said.

“Essentially, he has tried to take my authority as an elected official without actually saying that he was removing me from office. He made those conditions of my bond, with the caveat that if I break those conditions I’m going to jail until trial. The man even took away my gun rights,” McDaniel said. “He basically said in open court that I committed aggravated battery on a person. He basically said I was guilty without being tried. In my opinion, like anyone else, I’m innocent until proven guilty. I’ll never be proven guilty in this case, because I never committed an aggravated battery and everything I did was done in the performance of my duties within the scope of law…”

The chief believes what happened in Tuesday’s court proceedings was planned out by court officials before the outcome was known.

“All this was planned out well in advance even before court started there was a marked state trooper vehicle running outside just waiting. There were things that went on in court that had never happened on previous occasions during my court appearances – the district attorney was in there during my proceedings, the sheriff was there. They had never been in court during any of my previous court appearances. Then there were the proverbial hi fives, thank you(s) and exchange of appreciation among some of the onlookers. It was like they were celebrating,” he said

Immediately after the bond hearing, McDaniel was taken into custody for a second time and transported to the Claiborne Parish Detention Center by the marked state police unit that had been waiting outside the courthouse idle with a trooper inside. At the detention center, McDaniel was photographed, fingerprinted and released.

McDaniel was given 48 hours to comply with the bond conditions. In court, McDaniel’s attorney said he plans on addressing the matter with the court of appeal.

“I’m going to give notice of intent to apply for emergency supervisor with the Second Circuit Court of Appeal… My client is an elected chief of police and has the presumption of innocence guaranteed by the constitution and he’s essentially been removed from the office as chief of police by your honor’s ruling today, which in our humble opinion, the court is not authorized to make,” Bowman said.

McDaniel was a candidate for Claiborne sheriff in October. He was third in a three-man race, that included incumbent Sheriff Sam Dowies and former state trooper Michael Allen.

McDaniel is in his second term as police chief, having been the first Black elected to the position. His term ends Dec. 31 2026.

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