Pointe Coupee — Despite rumors, Fordoche Police Chief Jaroed “Tait” Slocum says he did not submit retirement paperwork to the town of Fordoche.
A recent story in the Pointe Coupee Banner stated that Slocum submitted his retirement paperwork to Fordoche Town Attorney Steve Marionneaux for notarization. However, in a phone call with Slocum, he told UWK that was not the case.
“I am planning to retire. I have not retired, nor have I resigned. I don’t plan on resigning at all,” Slocum said, explaining that while he has plans to retire he hasn’t officially submitted his retirement letter with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.
Fordoche Town Manager, Justin Cox, told UWK that Slocum had gone to the town attorney on Wednesday morning to have his retirement letter notarized.
“I called Tait to confirm it myself,” Cox said. “He said that he did go to Steve Marionneaux and that Marionneaux notarized his intent to retire because there’s a procedure in which you send a notarized statement to the Secretary of State’s Office. I asked him if he was going to submit it by bringing it to the Secretary of State’s office or mail it in. He (Slocum) specifically said he was going to mail it from the Livonia Post Office. What is a fact is he did have the town’s attorney notarize the document saying that he’s retiring effectively on December 1st. Now since Wednesday, did he change his mind and not decide or is he lying? I do not know?”
Cox also said that during the Fordoche Town Council meeting on Nov. 12, the council considered a resolution and an ordinance related to the Chief of Police position. He said the resolution was to be sent to the local state legislatures, Representative Jeremy LaCombe and State Senator Caleb Kleinpeter, to enter into a local bill in which the legislature would switch the position of Fordoche Police Chief from an elected one to an appointed one.
The ordinance submitted would prohibit the use of town equipment outside of city limits unless there are legitimate reasons.
Cox also informed the town council that two citizens in Fordoche had begun the process of a recall election for police chief. For that recall petition to be successful, 40% of the town’s residents, or roughly 280 people, would need to sign that petition.
At a previous town council meeting, Cox said council members also showed Slocum pictures of the Fordoche police unit outside of town jurisdiction and asked Slocum what police business he was responding to when those pictures were taken.
Cox said Slocum told the town council that he had gone to Livonia to get gas on one of the occasions but Cox said there was no receipt for a fuel purchase from that date at that time and said Slocum’s unit was allegedly seen outside a house in Livonia that night.
“It’s like having a juvenile delinquent”
“The reason the town council has done (all of) this is because, for almost two years that Tait Slocum has been police chief, he has mishandled a numerous amount of cases. He’s also been spotted outside of town using the patrol vehicle as his own personal vehicle and he’s not answering calls. And then the calls he does answer, it appears he doesn’t handle them right and when he doesn’t answer the calls, we can’t get in touch with him,” Cox said. “It’s like having a juvenile delinquent in that you can’t tell them anything but you’ve got to pay for them and you’re responsible legally if they mess up.”
Ultimately, Cox said the town council has tried to work with Slocum on multiple occasions but he feels it’s too late now to resolve any other ongoing problems.
“I would just like to see the police chief meet the town council and the mayor halfway, and I think all of these things could have been resolved. But after two years of pleading by the council and the mayor for the police chief to do more than what he’s doing and to keep from going out of town on non-town business, I know that is why the town council is at this point, willing to do anything to see a change,” Cox said.
Controversy has swirled around Slocum since he was elected chief of police in 2022. A recent report reviewed by UWK detailed Slocum’s refusal to arrest a Fordoche man who allegedly discharged a firearm illegally after an argument with his girlfriend. UWK submitted a records request to the Town of Fordoche for Slocum’s report on the incident. As of November 12, 2024, the town responded that the chief had not yet written a report but intended to file one that evening.
That incident is the latest in a string of allegations Slocum has contended with in recent months, including accusations of mishandling a rape and voyeurism case involving Mason Troth, a deputy with the East Feliciana Sheriff’s Office.
Slocum was further scrutinized after UWK uncovered claims that he allegedly forcibly relocated a mentally ill man, who was hallucinating, to a remote area outside his jurisdiction without seeking medical assistance. According to reports from the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff’s Office, Slocum told dispatchers the man was “in mental crisis” but failed to call for proper help.
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