BATON ROUGE - Louisiana State Police arrested a high-ranking lieutenant Friday morning on felony charges, according to an internal memo that went out to the agency this morning.

According to the memo, Lt. Chad Lacoste was arrested following two investigations into hit-and-run crashes that occurred in St. Tammany and Orleans parishes in September 2021.

The investigation began last year when Lt. Lacoste reported being involved in a hit-and-run crash in his unmarked department vehicle on U.S. 90 in Orleans Parish. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered Lt. Lacoste's department vehicle was involved in a separate hit-and-run crash the day before on LA 22 in St. Tammany Parish.

Through examination of the vehicle damage, electronic evidence and witness statements, investigators determined Lt. Lacoste intentionally failed to stop at the scene of the initial crash in St. Tammany Parish and falsely reported damage to his vehicle during the second hit-and-run crash in Orleans Parish.

State Police released a statement shortly after WBRZ first published news of the arrest, saying Lacoste was booked for malfeasance and injuring public records.

Lacoste has been on administrative leave since the onset of the investigation, according to State Police.