VIDALIA — A 2003 candidate for Concordia Parish sheriff has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office, alleging he was arrested and maliciously prosecuted for his role in that election.

James Whittington filed the suit in the Western District of Louisiana U.S. District Court, and named Sheriff Randy Maxwell, Jimmy Darden, District Attorney John Johnson and Judge Leo Boothe as defendants in the suit. The sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office were also named.

The suit was filed Thursday, and Friday Maxwell responded to it by saying that, while members of the press have been given copies of the suit, he has not.

“Jim Whittington is once again using the press for politics,” Maxwell said. “He’s a joke, and most of the media understands that. If the suit weren’t being filed for political reasons, why would the media have it before I’ve even seen it? And, why would it be filed two weeks before a major election when he’s had five years to file it? Because it’s political, and I think all Concordians are plenty smart enough to see that.”

The suit alleges that during his campaign, Whittington ran political advertisements that were embarrassing to Maxwell, and that following the election a conspiracy emerged to have him arrested on simple robbery and stalking charges.

“I said I was innocent from the get-go,” Whittington said.

The deadline to file the suit was Oct. 3, and Whittington said that he waited until now because of the district attorney’s race.

“The district attorney’s race was coming up, and I knew I could ask (former assistant district attorney) Brad Burget these questions and the truth would come out,” Whittington said. “I knew if Brad ran for district attorney I could get the facts for this case.”

The case has come up in recent debates between district attorney candidates, and Burget cited the Whittington case as an example of how he stood up to the local political machine by refusing to prosecute the case as a felony, which he described as “at best a theft.”

During the initial proceeding, the complainant, a former girlfriend of Whittington’s, testified that Whittington twisted her arm and took two rings. He maintains she gave him the rings, and others testified they had seen and held the rings in the months before the alleged incident.

The stalking charge stemmed from an allegation of telephone harassment from a friend of the former girlfriend, who alleged Whittington called her more than 70 times in a harassing matter.

The suit alleges no evidence for the stalking charge was ever presented in court.

Whittington spent 57 days in jail on a $175,000 bond, which was eventually reduced to $30,000. The charges were never prosecuted.

The high bond was why he named Boothe as a defendant in the matter, and Whittington said he believes Boothe set the bond under pressure from Maxwell.

Boothe said he had not even been aware of the suit until Friday evening, and declined to comment beyond saying, “Observe the result.”

Johnson was named because, as district attorney, he did not throw out the case, Whittington said.

Darden was named in the suit because he was the subject of the advertisements Whittington ran during his campaign, and the suit claims Darden was part of the alleged conspiracy.

But Maxwell said that just because someone has leveled an accusation in a lawsuit doesn’t make it true.

“Anyone can put anything in a lawsuit — including the Martians have landed — and then a newspaper prints it like it’s fact instead of pure fiction,” Maxwell said. “But, when it’s all dismissed or disproved, where are the newspapers then?”

The lawsuit is asking for $1 million in punitive damages because Whittington said Maxwell, “needs to pay that $1 million out of his pocket because it is my right to run for sheriff if I want to run. I want my day in court.”

Maxwell said he welcomes the opportunity to see Whittington on the witness stand.

“But I feel sure that this will be thrown out by a federal magistrate and will never go to trial,” he said.