A former Slidell cop who allegedly stopped Hispanic males then stole their cash and at times even their passenger’s money, was indicted Wednesday on 12 counts of malfeasance in office.

The indictment by a St. Tammany Parish Grand Jury came roughly six months after the alleged thefts occurred that netted Jonathan M. Lutman, a then two-year police veteran, up to $1,500 or more.

Lutman, 26, is accused of making a dozen or more stops, including two on the same man. He would allegedly ask the men for their wallets to check their identification, take their money then hand the wallets back to them.

LUTMAN

Many of the victims didn’t even speak English, and it wasn’t until June 27 that Lutman’s coworkers were notified of the alleged thefts.

On that day, two Hispanic males with broken English walked into Slidell Police headquarters and told the story of how Lutman stopped them in the early morning in the 400 block of Pontchartrain Drive and pilfered their wallets.

A shift commander was able to determine that Lutman made the traffic stop.

At the time he denied any wrongdoing until later when he confessed to at least one theft and resigned.

Lutman’s dealings came as a shock to coworkers like Capt. Kevin Foltz who described Lutman as a quiet man with a clean record “who didn’t even curse,” Foltz said.

Authorities at the time thought Lutman targeted Hispanics with limited English because they wouldn’t report the crimes. But once the first reported was filed and newspaper headlines detailed the story, others came forward.

Although at first investigators ran into a language barrier, detective Brian Brown, one of the few Slidell police officers who speaks Spanish, teamed up with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Together they interviewed Slidell’s Hispanic community and looked for victims.

“It’s a sad day when I have to do this,” Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan said when announcing the arrest. “This is a blemish on us here and law enforcement as a whole.”