LAFAYETTE, La. — A south Louisiana sher­iff accused of mak­ing anti-Semitic threats can’t car­ry a gun while await­ing tri­al on charges he direct­ed offi­cers to assault pris­on­ers, a fed­er­al judge ruled Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Hanna said he can’t “turn a blind eye” to state­ments like those that Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal alleged­ly made on tape. Prosecutors said an “unso­licit­ed infor­mant” recent­ly pro­vid­ed them with record­ings of a con­ver­sa­tion in which Ackal claimed he threat­ened to shoot a Justice Department pros­e­cu­tor between his “Jewish eyes” after the pros­e­cu­tor vowed to send him to prison. Prosecutors said their con­ver­sa­tion was cor­dial and Ackal mis­char­ac­ter­ized it on the tape, but they were still con­cerned about it and they had learned of “addi­tion­al threat­en­ing com­ments” that Ackal alleged­ly made. They did­n’t elab­o­rate about those dur­ing the hear­ing, and none of Ackal’s taped state­ments were played in court.

Ackal has been pro­hib­it­ed from pos­sess­ing firearms since his March indict­ment. His attor­ney, John McLindon, argued that recent killings of police offi­cers in Baton Rouge and Dallas demon­strate he needs a gun to pro­tect him­self. “Recently, there was a threat to ambush a deputy in New Iberia, which thank­ful­ly did not come true. However, the atmos­phere in this coun­try, espe­cial­ly in south Louisiana, makes this a very real pos­si­bil­i­ty,” McLindon wrote in a court fil­ing a day after a lone gun­man shot and killed three law enforce­ment offi­cers in Baton Rouge on July 17. The mag­is­trate said there is a “viable pos­si­bil­i­ty of a threat to (Ackal’s) secu­ri­ty,” but he not­ed that defen­dants charged with felonies are barred from pos­sess­ing guns before trial.

“I’m going to treat you just like any­body else,” Hanna told the sher­iff. McLindon said he sug­gest­ed to the sher­iff that he stay in his office and avoid patrolling the parish while he awaits tri­al. “He said that would be malfea­sance if he did­n’t go out and do his job,” McLindon told reporters. McLindon said in a court fil­ing that his client did­n’t know he was being taped when he made “some inap­pro­pri­ate remarks” among friends “in the pri­va­cy of his home” after the meet­ing with pros­e­cu­tors. McLindon called it “disin­gen­u­ous” for pros­e­cu­tors to pub­licly release Ackal’s state­ments while also deny­ing him the right to car­ry a gun for protection.

After Friday’s hear­ing, McLindon said, “99.9 per­cent of the tapes were innocu­ous.” Prosecutors argued that Ackal’s remarks were grounds for tight­en­ing the con­di­tions of his pre-tri­al release. On Friday, the judge ordered Ackal to sub­mit to pre-tri­al super­vi­sion, a new con­di­tion. Ackal’s tri­al is sched­uled to start Oct. 31. His orig­i­nal indict­ment claims he direct­ed offi­cers to assault inmates in the parish jail’s chapel, where no video sur­veil­lance cam­eras would record the April 2011 beat­ings. Last month, Ackal was indict­ed on a new charge that he con­spired in 2014 to assault a man who was accused of assault­ing one of Ackal’s rel­a­tives. Nine for­mer employ­ees of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office already have plead­ed guilty to relat­ed charges.
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