LAFAYETTE, La. (The Advertiser)- A hearing Monday morning to revoke the probation of Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope was postponed to Dec. 27.

Pope’s attorney, Joy Rabalais, said she had to remove herself as his attorney because Pope filed a federal lawsuit against former Lafayette Consolidated Government employees over the release of his emails. Rabalais reviews public records requests on behalf of LCG.

Rabalais told 15th Judicial District Court Judge Jules Edwards that Pope tried to obtain another attorney.

One didn’t have the experience, she said, and Pope did not want two other attorneys representing him in a criminal case to also represent him in the civil case.

“We’re talking about whether the marshal should spend time in jail,” Edwards said, adding he doesn’t understand why his criminal case attorneys wouldn’t represent their client when his freedom is at stake.

Attorney Scott Mansfield appeared in court on behalf of the Baton Rouge law firm Taylor, Porter, Brooks and Phillips, which has been obtained to represent Pope. Rabalais said Mansfield was prepared to start in January.

Gary McGoffin, the Lafayette attorney representing The Independent Weekly LLC, objected.

“It does appear to me the marshal is attempting to delay this,” Edwards said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me to continue this into next year.”

He gave Pope the option of proceeding with the hearing Monday or re-scheduling it for Dec. 27, which is the option chosen.

The Independent Weekly sued Pope in 2015 after he refused to turn over emails the newspaper argued were public records.

Pope lost and was ordered to hand over the documents. He relinquished some, but not all.

Edwards found him in contempt of court and ordered Pope to spend a week on house arrest and conduct community service work by teaching others about public records laws.