Family "Arrested" in Louisiana on Christmas, Given Gifts
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DECEMBER 25, 2009
David Johnson, Citizen Journalist

Neither Leonard nor Lori Pavia of Greer, S.C., could figure out why the deputy had pulled them over as they headed to see friends in McAllen, Texas.
"I couldn't think of anything that I did wrong. I knew I wasn't speeding," Leonard Pavia said. Lori Pavia said her first reaction was to make sure that Sienna, 10, and Dakota, 12, had their seat belts on. They did.
Turns out, this 'arrest' is a tradition practice each year in Jennings La, where a deserving travelling family is hauled off to a church, "tried" for not stopping to enjoy local hospitality and "sentenced" to gumbo, presents and a tour.
"We do this every year at Christmastime to some unsuspecting out-of-town person," said Gayle Jones, a member of the Jennings Optimist Club, which has made it part of a more than 30-year holiday tradition. "It's just a community service project we do each year to bring people in and show them our hospitality," member Leonra Dupuis said.
Deputy Terry Guillory, who pulled the family over, said he spent several hours Monday morning on Interstate 10, waiting to find the perfect family to stop.
Assistant District Attorney Stacey Naquin was prosecutor in a mock trial at Immanuel Lutheran Church and local attorney David Marcantel was the defense attorney. Judge Daniel Stretcher sentenced the family to enjoy bowls of chicken-and-sausage gumbo, gift baskets from area merchants and a tour of Jennings.
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