Arrested Louisiana priest was accused of ‘inappropriately touching a child’, report says | US crime

The arrest of a Catholic priest in southwest Louisiana came after local authorities were informed that the cleric had “inappropriately touched a child” over the course of a year, according to investigators’ initial report on the case.

The Guardian obtained the report Friday through a public records request, a week after the Acadia Parish, Louisiana, sheriff’s office charged Korey LaVergne with three counts of indecent behavior toward a minor.

According to the report, it was on the evening of Dec. 2 that Acadia deputies received a complaint that LaVergne had previously assaulted a minor. The accuser had revealed to a third party “that he had been touched inappropriately by Father Korey Lavergne… on several occasions over the past year,” according to the report.

Deputies wrote that the inappropriate touching allegedly took place at St. Edward Catholic Church in the Richard Acadian Community, where LaVergne was pastor.

LaVergne was then jailed on the evening of January 16. He quickly posted $15,000 bail to secure his release pending the outcome of the case.

The sheriff’s office initially said it could not immediately provide details about the nature of the allegations against LaVergne, saying the agency would release them later when the investigation allowed.

Louisiana law defines indecent behavior toward a minor as “any lewd or lascivious act…in the presence of any child under 17 years of age.” Messages – including texts – and actions alleged to constitute grooming may constitute an offense under Louisiana law.

In many cases, this particular crime can result in up to seven years in prison if convicted.

LaVergne’s arrest came at a crucial time in the history of the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, to which St. Edward belongs. Founded in 1918 and serving a congregation of around 150,000 Catholics, the diocese revealed in a financial report released in November that it estimated “the full extent of potential losses on [pending litigation] …is from $88,187,500 to $162,450,000.”

The diocese released the estimate years after the exposure of a Lafayette diocese priest, Gilbert Gauthe, who effectively brought the decades-old international Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal to the United States by pleading guilty in 1985 to molesting several boys. He served 10 years in prison while numerous other cases subsequently came to light across the United States, collectively costing the Catholic Church billions and, in some cases, resulting in criminal convictions.

Elsewhere in Louisiana, about 135 miles east of Lafayette, the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed in December to pay about $305 million to about 600 survivors of clergy abuse. The Archdiocese of New Orleans reached the agreement more than five years after seeking federal bankruptcy protection amid financial fallout from the global clergy abuse scandal.

LaVergne was ordained a priest in 2018, according to a biography posted on the St. Edward Church website. The biography states that he had been appointed pastor of St Edward in July 2021.

Before his arrest, LaVergne had served as the official courier for the Diocese of Lafayette. In this role, he made headlines for bringing thousands of pages of documents to the Catholic Church’s world headquarters in the Vatican, outlining the cause for Charlene Richard’s sainthood.

Nicknamed the Little Cajun Saint, Charlene Richard died of acute lymphatic leukemia at the age of 12 in 1959 and became known for offering her suffering to God as well as others. She is buried in Saint-Édouard.

Lafayette news station KADN reported Jan. 16 that the complaint that led to LaVergne’s arrest that day was filed by a fellow priest.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Lafayette released a statement saying it would “continue to assist law enforcement and ask for prayers for all those involved” in this matter.

Attempts to contact LaVergne for comment were not successful.