(WBRZ News 2) A Baton Rouge Police corporal is on leave without pay after the department found he was meeting up for sex in a secluded area while on duty.
The WBRZ Investigative Unit learned Michael Edwards was suspended for 80 days following an internal investigation. Authorities confirmed, the woman who had sex with Edwards filed a complaint, prompting the department inquiry.
Sources told WBRZ, the rendezvous area was off I-12 near O'Neal Lane.
People in that area said they routinely saw a police car parked there and thought it was part of an assignment to keep watch on that area of the city.
"[There is] so much crime with the record-breaking murders, he need to be out doing his job and preventing some of this crime going on,” Flanettia Reid said. Another person agreed, and questioned the suspension and pondered if a harsher punishment should have been in order.
"I would be terminated without question," Johnathan Outlaw said. "While he's over there doing whatever he wants to do and misusing his badge, there are people dying, people getting robbed people who need police help and protection."
Edwards has been with BRPD for more than a decade. His work history and any other discipline were not made available by the afternoon news deadline.
Baton Rouge Police declined to do an interview on television, but did issue a written statement that said: "The department took the appropriate action from what resulted from the internal investigation."