Federal lawsuit against Church Point principal settled

A 2023 federal lawsuit against the Church Point police chief, the city of Church Point and an officer filed by a woman who claimed she was illegally tased and arrested has been settled.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2023 in the US District Court, Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette. The settlement was filed Wednesday and a 60-day dismissal order was signed by Judge David Joseph on Thursday.

Sky Thibodeaux, a resident of Acadia Parish, alleged in the lawsuit that on June 4, 2022, she was a passenger in a car driven by Jacob Dillon, which was stopped by Church Point police officers Mark Regan and Tyran Jones. Dillon was arrested for an outstanding warrant and operating a vehicle with a suspended license.

Thibodeaux went to the police station to fill out paperwork and post bail for Dillon’s release, the lawsuit said. When she and Dillon left the police station, she claims that Regan, Jones and Dillon continued to argue in the parking lot and the officers attempted to re-arrest Dillon for disturbing the peace.

During the argument, Thibodeaux claims she attempted to de-escalate the situation when Jones grabbed her wrist to pull her away and “forcibly applied a brachial takedown maneuver and slammed (her) into the asphalt first.”

Jones then allegedly tasered, handcuffed and arrested Thibodeaux several times for interfering with a police investigation and resisting arrest.

Thibodeaux claims she was held in a booking cell and denied the right to use the telephone to call a family member and denied use of a private bathroom because the cell toilet was unsanitary. She said she was forced to relieve herself in a small trash can next to one of the officers’ desks.

Her lawsuit alleges that Jones used excessive force that violated her 14th Amendment rights, that Regan failed to intervene on her behalf, that Chief Dale Thibodeaux created policies that led to the excessive force and failed to adequately train and supervise his employees. Taken together, she alleges violations of the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The defendants responded in the filing by claiming qualified immunity and claiming the cause of the woman’s injuries was her own fault.

The settlement documents do not reveal details about what was agreed to to dismiss the lawsuit.