The St. Charles Parish District Attorney’s Office announced today that Shelley Dufresne has plead guilty to one felony count of obscenity and has admitted to engaging in a prohibited sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student.
Dufresne was sentenced by Judge Anne Simon on the obscenity charge to a deferred term of three years incarceration with the Louisiana Department of Corrections, three-year probation, and a $1,000 fine. Conditions of probation include no contact with the victim or his family, forfeiture of her teaching certificate and 90 days in-patient mental health treatment in lieu of 90 days in parish prison.
The plea agreement calls for the original charge of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, which carries a potential 10-year jail sentence and mandatory registration as a sex offender, to be held open during the term of Dufresne’s probation.
If Dufresne fails to successfully complete her probation, she would be subject to further prosecution on the carnal knowledge charge and incarceration followed by mandatory registration as a sex offender.
The victim’s parents were present for Dufresne’s sentencing and expressed their support for this resolution of the case, according to District Attorney’s office.District Attorney Joel Chaisson II said, “I want to thank my special prosecutor, Julie Cullen, for her efforts to reach a fair resolution of the case and to secure a felony guilty plea, thereby sparing the juvenile victim in this matter from having to testify at a public trial.”
According to media reports, the former student’s parents were sitting in the courtroom when Dufresne admitted to having “consensual sexual intercourse with a juvenile.” Her plea in the 29th Judicial District Court allows her and the student to avoid a public trial, as well as to avoid a three-year prison sentence.
The plea was accepted by Judge Anne Simon, appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to handle the case after three local judges, including Dufresne’s father, Judge Emile St. Pierre, stepped aside. Dufresne’s initial charge of carnal knowledge with a juvenile is still pending, according to the plea agreement. By pleading guilty to the obscenity charge, she deferred a 3-year sentence on the carnal knowledge offense.
Simon described the agreement as “usual” for first-time offenders in St. Charles Parish, according to media reports.
On Sept. 26, after the victim, a 16-year-old at the time at Destrehan High School, bragged to other students about having sex with two teachers, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office investigated and reported the alleged acts took place in the early part of September at a Montz residence. A second incident, which involved another teacher, allegedly took place in Kenner.
Dufresne, 33, of 805 Country Cottage Blvd. in Montz, was charged with carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Her bond was set at $200,000. She posted bond and was released from jail.
By November, she plead not guilty to carnal knowledge of a juvenile in St. Charles Parish. Her home incarceration restrictions were also loosened so that she could help her husband transport their three young children to school and extracurricular activities. Previously, she was allowed to leave her home to receive mental health treatment five days a week from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
As part of that treatment she asked for, and received, permission to attend Jazzercise classes in LaPlace. Dufresne still had to remain at home from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m., and was ordered not to have any contact with the alleged victim.
Dufresne was accused of having sex with an English student at her house and was accused of having group sex with the student and another Destrehan teacher, 24-year-old Rachel Respess, in Kenner.
Dufresne and Respess both faced charges of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile in Jefferson Parish. The district attorney’s office has not yet announced whether the two will be charged.
The two were suspended from their jobs without pay after their arrests.
Carnal knowledge of a juvenile carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Kenner Police Chief Michael Glaser said both teachers were accused of having sex with the student in Respess’ home on West Esplanade Avenue.
He said Respess was the student’s English teacher in 2013-14 while Dufresne taught the student English last fall.
In October, a week after the arrests, questions arose about possible photographic and video evidence in the case. At least one phone has been confiscated from those involved, which was being examined by the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office. The results of a forensic test have not been made public.
At the time, St. Charles Parish School Board member Al Suffrin said the situation was troubling.
“It gives the district a black eye. It is obviously something we don’t like to see happen because it is a distraction. It gets in the way of what our core business is. We don’t like to see this sort of thing happen,” he said.
Suffrin said the school district has overcome such situations before, but it makes the job of all educators more difficult when such issues arise.
“Generally speaking we have enough challenges as it is. We didn’t need something like this to happen to add the challenges we already have. It is a difficult enough task,” he said. “When something like this happens it is more than just a bump in road. We work so hard to make strides and progress and something like this is a setback.
“We’ve had other challenges we’ve faced and overcome.”
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