BATON ROUGE - An East Feliciana Parish deputy has sued the City of Zachary and one of its police officers in federal court, alleging that he was improperly arrested amid his divorce from a Zachary Police employee.

Jorge Rice, was arrested on June 27 on charges that he failed to report a felony, and that the failure amounted to malfeasance in office, according to the suit.

The arresting officer, Justin Minor, wrote up an arrest warrant after receiving a complaint from Danielle Rice, who worked with Minor at Zachary Police.

She and Jorge Rice were still married at that point but were "in the process of divorcing and resolving child custody issues," the suit said.

Rice claims in the suit that the "alleged felony" Minor accused him of failing to report was an act by a 9-year-old.

Louisiana law sets the minimum age at which someone can be described as committing a crime at 10 years old.

The suit does not provide any further details about the nature of the crime but said it was "used as a pretext to arrest Rice."

The suit said that District Attorney Hillar Moore told all the involved law enforcement agencies several months after the arrest that he would not prosecute Rice.

Rice filed the suit against Minor and the city of Zachary in federal court in Baton Rouge on Wednesday.