CARENCRO, LA — A woman whose son has a developmental disability is filing a lawsuit against Carencro Police.
She claims an officer was too rough with her mentally handicapped son, breaking his wrist.
Carencro Police Chief David Anderson said his department is investigating the mother’s claims. Right now, no injuries have been linked back to an officer, but action will be taken if any wrongdoing is uncovered.
“How do you do it? Is it hard?”, asked Cynthia Moody to her son.
After a few seconds, Dedrick Moody replied with one word, “Yeah.”
Mother and son are now living with not just his mental disability, but his physical handicap too.
Dedrick Moody is 28. He has autism and last Friday he broke his wrist.
His mother, Cynthia Moody, says there could only be one cause, a police officer going too far, “What he did was he attacked my son. He abused my son. He assaulted my son, and he has no right to do that.”
Documents obtained by News 10 from the Carencro Police Department show “An officer received numerous complaints from the apartment complex” about Moody’s son.
Authorities say the complaints regarded him hanging around children and other apartments day and night and smoking marijuana.
When an officer found Moody about a two-minute walk away from his home, he, “Made contact with the subject and escorted him away.”
“We do know there was an incident where a police officer affected an arrest,” Carencro Police Chief David Anderson said Tuesday afternoon.
Cynthia Moody says she received a call at work from her frantic son after the encounter with police. She left work early, and when she arrived home she took Dedrick to the emergency room, where he had surgery for a fractured radius.
She then filed a complaint with the department.
Chief Anderson said, “It’s under investigation, and we don’t know any further at this time.”
Police records show a dozen calls regarding Dedrick Moody in the past five years, two mentioned his mental illness. His mother says he has run around with no-good company before but that doesn’t excuse what she claims the officer did Friday.
“Let’s not deal with the past history,” Moody said. “Let’s deal with the incident that occurred at the time.”
An officer returned Sunday with a criminal trespass warrant and booked Dedrick into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center without incident.
Cynthia Moody said she pays rent and her son has every right to enjoy the apartment complex, “Really?! People can walk here. This is where he resides. He has the right to walk”.
Dedrick Moody has another surgery scheduled Wednesday morning where pins will be put into his healing wrist.
Chief Anderson said he didn’t want to speculate on what could happen. Right now his department is trying to locate witnesses, and if any wrongdoing is found once the investigation is complete, he will move forward.
