Councilman pleads 'no contest' to battery, resisting an officer; fined $50 per charge

A Bogalusa city councilman will have to pay a pair of $50 fines after pleading “no contest” to simple battery and resisting an officer in misdemeanor court in Franklinton Thursday, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Judge A.J. Hand sentenced Bogalusa City Councilman Danny Stogner a $50 fine for the battery charge and another $50 fine for the resisting an officer charge, plus court costs. The total amount comes to $299.50, which Stogner must pay by July 23.

The District Attorney’s office asked Hand to give Stogner jail time, but the judge did not, said Rick Wood, spokesperson for District Attorney Walter Reed. No probation was issued, Wood said.

Bogalusa police arrested Stogner last May 4, 2008, after a disturbance call came in concerning the 200 block of Derbigny Street where Stogner and Edward Dubuisson were involved in an altercation.

Dubuisson was visiting a house that Stogner owns when the two began arguing.

Stogner said his daughter used to live at the address, but moved, and that the resident at the time was not pleased when he heard Stogner was planning to sell the house.

The councilman said he went to the house, and Dubuisson, a friend of the resident’s, was there and threatened to burn the house.

“He said, ‘I can make it burn, and there’ll be no trace,’” Stogner said a few days after the arrest. “I worked hard to get that place. I swung at him two or three times, but he ran. I didn’t touch him.”

Stogner also claimed he did not resist arrest.

Dubuisson, however, said he never threatened to burn the house, and Stogner, who was drunk at the time, did connect on a couple of punches.

“He just barely grazed my forehead with the first,” Dubuisson said a few days after the incident. “And on the third, his forearm hit me and twisted my neck. I’m seeing a doctor and a lawyer.”

According to Dubuisson’s account, while Stogner was in handcuffs “he cursed police officers and made racial comments, and wedged himself against the car.”

Following his arrest and release from jail, Stogner said he mishandled the situation.

“Hindsight being 20/20, I should have let the law handle it,” he said