POLICE CHIEF ARRESTED IN DRUG INVESTIGATION

Carenco Police arrested Grand Coteau's police chief after midnight Saturday
during an ongoing drug investigation.

Raymond Simmons was booked into Lafayette Parish Correctional Center in
Lafayette soon after his arrest on one count each of possession of Schedule
IV narcotics and malfeasance in office, booking records show. He posted
$20,000 bond just before 9 a.m. and was released. "When it comes to this
type of deal, we've got no choice other than to do our jobs," Carencro's
Police Chief Timmy Duhon said Saturday evening. He said they had heard that
a law enforcement officer from St. Landry Parish was buying illicit
prescription drugs from a particular house.

Carencro Police had been watching the house for at least four months,
hoping to catch suspects. Duhon said Simmons was buying Lortab, a
prescription painkiller, for a "bedridden" friend afflicted with severe pain.

"We're going to contact a few doctors Monday to let them know what's going
on," Duhon said. "What we understand is, (the people selling drugs were)
going around to different doctors; they'll get 120 from one, 90 from
another." He declined to identify the occupants of the house, the address,
the sellers or buyers, hinting that more arrests may happen soon. A woman
who answered the phone at Grand Coteau's Police Department Saturday evening
declined comment.

She said she did not know how many people are on the police force in the
St. Landry Parish city, which has a population of 1,040. St. Landry Parish
Sheriff Howard Zerangue, reached by phone while traveling, said he did not
have the particulars of the case in front of him. He referred questions to
Chief Criminal Deputy Laura Balthazar, but she did not return repeated
telephone messages.

In 1996, Simmons was suspended without pay, but not arrested or charged
with any crime, after the shooting death of a suspected convenience-store
robber near Grand Coteau's Town Hall.

Clarence Barlow, 25, died in a hail of gunfire about 8 a.m. in late June
1996. Simmons was a police officer in Grand Coteau when Barlow allegedly
robbed a store in neighboring Sunset, then fled.

Ballistics tests determined another officer's bullet killed Barlow, but
controversy over the incident roiled nearby towns for weeks, inciting
marches, a business boycott and accusations of racism.

Grand Coteau's aldermen reinstated Simmons in a 3-2 vote several weeks
after Barlow's death.

The date of his hiring as police chief was not available.