MANSFIELD, La. – The DeSoto Parish Police Jury has allotted $150,000 to hire outside legal counsel in defense of a redistricting lawsuit.

The Police Jury was sued last month by a dozen parish voters who alleged the Police Jury’s reapportionment plan was gerrymandered based on race in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The Police Jury hired the Baton Rouge law firm of Breazeal Sachse & Wilson to represent it in the federal proceedings. The lead counsel will be paid $400 an hour and the junior counsel, $275 an hour.

There is no concrete estimate on how long the litigation will last. An attorney with the law firm estimated the $150,000 should get them through the initial phase.

The plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit contend when police jurors drew the new lines for the 11 election districts they did not take into consideration the vast growth in north DeSoto Parish. Instead, the plan retained five majority-Black districts in Mansfield, which has lost considerable population, according to the 2020 census count.

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Shreveport and asked for an injunction to stop this fall’s election until the court decides the case. Qualifying for the Police Jury’s fall elections is Aug. 8-10, with the election on Oct. 14.

The federal court has set a status conference for June 26 and at that time indicated a hearing date would be set to consider the injunction.

Meanwhile, the Police Jury has a deadline of tomorrow to file its first response to the lawsuit. It has another deadline of June 23.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs include Reid A. Jones of Wiener, Weiss & Madison in Shreveport and the law firm of Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak in Washington, D.C.