LAFAYETTE, La. (The Advertiser)- Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope wants his perjury and malfeasance convictions thrown out because he doesn’t understand how email works and didn’t read his legal bills before paying them, his attorneys say.

They made those statements in a motion for acquittal filed earlier this month in 15th Judicial District Court, where Pope faces sentencing April 3, The Advertiser reported. 

Pope’s lawyers argue that the case against him, which led to a guilty verdict last year on four felonies — perjury and three counts of malfeasance — amounted to prosecutors and the press picking on him for practicing his free-speech rights as a U.S. citizen when he called a news conference in October 2015 to blast a candidate for parish sheriff.

That candidate, Mark Garber, ran against Pope’s longtime friend Chad Leger and won.

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