Guilty plea gets woman jail time, sex offender status after child porn charges dropped
GONZALES, La. (BRPROUD) — A Gonzales woman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit indecent behavior with a juvenile recently and will face prison time and have to register as a sex offender upon her release.
According to the district attorney’s office for the 23rd Judicial District Court and court documents, Heather French, 36, pleaded guilty on March 18. She was sentenced to seven years in a Louisiana Department of Corrections facility and will serve two of those. The remaining five years were suspended. She’ll also be put on three years of supervised probation. She must notify and register as a sex offender.
In the plea documents, it says that she conspired to commit indecent behavior with a juvenile on or around Nov. 3, 2020.
French initially was arrested in February 2022 and charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree rape and for failure to report the commission of a crime. She was later charged with two counts of pornography involving juveniles and two counts of video voyeurism.
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She previously was employed as a paraprofessional at Galvez Middle School, where she was named Support Person of the Year for 2020-21.
The Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a release that detectives and the Gonzales Police Department determined that French had sent texts with “lewd comments” regarding two students at the school where she worked.
Investigators also reportedly found child pornography from a separate incident unrelated to school students on her phone.
APSO said she was charged in relation to an investigation into Douglas Decuir, 42.
According to Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office inmate information, Decuir is still in custody. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of pornography involving juveniles, two counts of indecent behavior with juveniles, three counts of obstruction of justice/intimidation and one count of inciting a felony. He also had a bench warrant on failure to appear. His total bond amount is $1.6 million.
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