A former Destrehan High School band teacher that was accused of sleeping with a student in 2008 is back in jail after Judge M. Lauren Lemmon revoked his probation due to a recent arrest for breaking into a woman’s home.
Byron Toups, of Des Allemands, was charged with simple burglary, simple battery and trespassing after authorities say he broke into a woman’s home in Napoleonville in June. Because of Lemmon’s revocation, Toups will serve the original five-year sentence he received under a plea agreement last year.
In August 2009, Toups pled guilty to malfeasance in office, intimidation of a witness and simple battery in a case involving two high school students. Toups served six months in prison and six months of home incarceration as part of the plea agreement.
Toups was originally charged with molestation, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. During the trial, Lemmon told Toups that the only reason she approved a reduced sentence is because the victims didn’t want to go through the torture of a trial or have Toups rot in prison.
The malfeasance in office charge stemmed from an incident in February of 2007 when Toups behaved indecently with a 16-year-old student at his house. The victim gave two statements in the case, first saying that she didn’t know Toups and then admitting that the two had sex, according to court documents.
However, Toups was not convicted of a sex offense because parish prosecutors thought they might have had problems getting the victim to testify in a trial.
In July of that same year, Toups took a band student into the nurse’s office at the school, pinned the victim against the wall with his body and attempted to kiss her behind a locked door, according to court documents.
Toups then told the student that if anyone found out about the incident, she would regret it, according to the police report.
That incident led to Toups pleading guilty to simple battery and intimidation of a witness.
In addition to the prison term, Toups received a five-year suspended sentence and was placed on active probation for five years.
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