Louisiana town's lone candidate for police chief charged with raping teen girls
- Christopher Paul, the sole candidate for Elizabeth, LA police chief, is out on $60k bail after being charged with raping two 13-year-old girls in 2005-06.
- The population-373 town is trying to rewrite its charter mid-stream to change the top cop job from elected to appointed before the felon-in-waiting can take the oath on Jan. 1.
- His only opponent, Zachary LaCaze, dropped out due to a boring federal Hatch Act violation AFTER the filing deadline, gifting the unopposed race to a man accused of being a serial predator.
- Louisiana law only bars convicted felons from office; accused sex offenders with a competent lawyer are apparently fine to run a police department.
- Despite a recall mechanism requiring 40% of voters' signatures, the town council is instead gambling on an emergency ordinance to void the election entirely.
Brief Summary
In the swampy paradise of Elizabeth, Louisiana, democracy has officially become a punchline. The town's sole candidate for police chief, Christopher Paul, is currently facing charges that he raped two 13-year-old girls two decades ago, and because his opponent pulled out after the filing deadline, he's cruising to victory by default. The village council is now in a hysterical scramble, drafting emergency ordinances and begging the state AG to let them convert the chief's job to an appointed position before Jan. 1, when this accused predator would legally take charge of the town's law enforcement.
Why This Matters
This isn't just another absurd small-town news cycle; it's a glaring indictment of a broken electoral system. Your takeaway from this debacle is that in many jurisdictions, the only thing standing between a child predator and a badge is the sheer luck of having an opponent who cares about federal labor law. The town's solution—changing the rules after the game is rigged—sets a terrifying precedent that desperate municipalities will now consider when they panic over a bad election result, which means your local government might soon be rewriting its constitution on the fly instead of relying on actual vetting processes.