LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Louisiana police chief on a civil rights violation for allegedly using unreasonable force and injuring a person who was being detained, prosecutors said.

Sunset Police Chief Luis Enrique Padilla, also known as Louis Padilla, is accused of handcuffing a person without legal justification during an investigation on Dec. 1, 2023, and reportedly forcefully twisted the person's thumb and wrist, causing injury, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news release Tuesday.

Padilla was arrested after the indictment was returned. He appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst and entered a plea of not guilty, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He was released on a $30,000 bond with conditions, including no contact with witnesses or the alleged victim and no possession of firearms.

A person who answered the telephone at the Sunset Police Department said the police chief had no comment regarding his arrest. When asked about his employment status, the person disconnected the call. The Federal Public Defender's Office was appointed to represent Padilla, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, but no one was available Wednesday to discuss the case.

If convicted, Padilla faces up to 10 years in prison.

Padilla served as police chief in Sunset, in St. Landry Parish, from 1999 to 2002, when he was defeated by Alexcie Guillory in the 2001 election. Padilla ran for the office again in 2014 and was elected with 53% of the vote, The Advocate reported.

During the campaign, Padilla was arrested on a charge of impersonating a police officer for allegedly identifying himself as the Sunset police chief. After he won in the runoff, prosecutors did not pursue the charges against him, the newspaper said.