A New Iberia woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal and one of his deputies claiming the deputy used excessive force against her son, including choking the teen, during a service call last November.

According to a complaint filed Nov. 5 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, IPSO Deputy David Vincent was called on Nov. 1, 2017, to the home of Nicole St. Julian after St. Julian’s mother, who is described in the lawsuit as being mentally ill, had barricaded herself and St. Julian’s minor daughter in a bedroom.  She called 911, claiming St. Julian was “trying to kill her” as St. Julian tried to free her daughter from the bedroom.

The plaintiff claims responding deputies threatened to arrest St. Julian if they received any more calls from the home. When St. Julian’s 13-year old son asked the officer why he was threatening his mother, the lawsuit claims Vincent “threw him against a wall, forcefully and violently threw him to the ground, then began to strangle him.”

The complaint says Vincent then handcuffed the teen and dragged him by his hair to his patrol unit, throwing him into the back seat.

Additionally, the complaint says Vincent threatened to arrest St. Julian and keep her teen son from receiving medical attention if she did not sign a citation for his arrest on a charge of assault and battery of an officer. The lawsuit claims she signed the citation under duress.

According to St. Julian, the paramedics who were called to her residence told her to take pictures of the bruises to her son’s face and body.

In the body of the complaint, St. Julian’s lawyer Clayton Burgess argues that Ackal, as sheriff, created an environment under which excessive force was condoned and allowed. 

He also says a lack of training, especially in the de-escalation of situations involving minors, and a lack of procedures for handling those situations set the stage for Vincent’s actions.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages against Ackal as sheriff and against Vincent both individually and in his capacity as a sheriff’s deputy.

St. Julian’s lawsuit is one of nine still pending in federal court claiming abuse at the hands of IPSO deputies, according to a search of court records.