LAKE CHARLES –– Allen Parish Sheriff Doug Hebert and four deputies face a federal lawsuit from a woman who claims she was falsely arrested.
Kayla Danielle Langley filed the lawsuit on Aug. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Hebert, Richard "Rico" Wiseman, Josh Manuel, Blair Fontenot and Brian Hargrove.
According to the complaint, Langley was arrested in 2017 when she called for assistance to remove a person from her home. The responding deputies ran a background check and saw an arrest warrant for battery, the complaint states. After Langley protested and demanded to see the warrant, she says the deputies arrested her.
Langley alleges that once en route to jail, Wiseman told Fontenot they may have arrested the wrong person. Fontenot told him to continue to hold her, she says. Langley was detained for several hours before she was released. Langley alleges the deputies knew she was not the person listed on the arrest warrant, but took her to jail anyway and waited until a shift change to release her.
She alleges the sheriff failed to adequately train the deputies on how to verify individuals on arrest warrants. She claims the deputies violated her constitutional rights to due process and unreasonable search and seizure.
Langley now suffers from depression and other mental health conditions arising from the detention and humiliation suffered at the hands of the deputies.
Langley seeks compensatory damages. She is represented by Robert Toale of Gretna.