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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 98-K-1599 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. JERRY SCHWEHM On Writ of Certiorari to the First Circuit Court of Appeal PER CURIAM:* Prosecutions for malfeasance of office as defined by La.R.S. 14:134(1) and 14:134(2) presuppose the existence of "a statute or provision of the law which delineates an affirmative duty upon the official." (La. 1985). State v. Perez, 464 So.2d 737, 741

This duty "must be expressly imposed by law upon

the official because the official is entitled to know exactly what conduct is expected of him in his official capacity and what conduct will subject him to criminal charges." Id. In

this prosecution of the former Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward in St. Tammany Parish on two counts of malfeasance, the court of appeal reversed the defendant's conviction on the count charging him with failure to remit litter fines to the appropriate governing authority from January 1, 1991 to December 31, 1993, on grounds that "even assuming defendant had a duty to remit some or all of the litter fines to the parish, no time for the performance of this duty was provided by law." State v. Schwehm, 97-1544, p. 5 (La. App. 1st Cir. 5/15/98), 713 So.2d 697, 701. In the absence of such an express

provision, and notwithstanding the appeal of the "common sense" proposition "that a requirement of reasonable promptness is
*

Victory, J., not on panel.

See Rule IV, Part II,

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Louisiana Law