[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta turns himself in, released on $20, 000 bond

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta turns himself in, released on
$20,000 bond

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on April 24, 2014 at 9:28 AM, updated April 24, 2014 at 6:02 PM

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta turned himself in at the Chalmette
jail Thursday morning, a day after he was indicted on a charge of sexual
battery of his wife, who last fall accused him of raping her at their Meraux
home.

Peralta was processed at the jail and released at about 11:30 a.m. on a
$20,000 bond set during a court hearing earlier in the morning. During the
hearing, he stood up in a Chalmette courtroom as state Judge Jacques Sanborn
also ordered him to stay away from his wife, Sharon Peralta, and for him and
his associates to avoid calling her.

Peralta, who once was the warden of that St. Bernard jail, said during an
interview last month that being sent to there would be "an awful fearful
thought for a guy who is a former police officer and ran that jail." On
Thursday, Peralta declined to comment to reporters when he exited the jail
after being released on his bond.

One of his criminal defense attorneys, Stephen London, on Thursday morning
called the charge against Peralta "baseless." 

"I'm totally convinced of his innocence," London said. The case "is going to
be vigorously defended."

On Thursday afternoon, parish Councilmen Guy McInnis, Ray Lauga and Casey
Hunnicutt called for Peralta's "voluntary resignation," in part saying that
"unencumbered leadership and focus" is needed.

"In our opinion, your recent personal and legal issues have overtaxed your
capacity to maintain the public trust and provide fruitful and productive
leadership moving St. Bernard Parish forward," according to their statement.
"We feel your legal issues have exceeded you personally, and now impede St.
Bernard Parish as a whole."

"We believe that it is in the best interest of St. Bernard Parish and its
governance to respectfully request your voluntary resignation of the Parish
President's office in order to deliver the most beneficial government that
the citizens of St. Bernard Parish deserve."

(Read and download the councilmen's full statement here.)

London said Peralta, who was elected in 2011, will not resign the parish
presidency. 
"This has nothing to do with his political position. It's purely a personal
matter," London said of the criminal charge. 

But Sharon Peralta's attorney, Vernon Thomas, released a statement Thursday
afternoon saying the parish president used his office to coerce Sharon
Peralta, then a parish employee.

"Dave Peralta used his position as parish president to coerce and threaten
Sharon Peralta's family and job if she did not sign the affidavit to drop
the charges," Thomas said. "This document was drafted and signed at the
government complex on government time by an employee."

Dave Peralta denied raping his wife as soon as the case was made public a
few days after the incident. He cited the affidavit that Sharon Peralta
signed Oct. 28 in which she said she did not wish to see her husband
prosecuted "for any offenses arising from the incident which occurred at our
home."

In a separate complaint filed with State Police in February, Sharon Peralta
said Dave Peralta and attorney Pat Fanning harassed her into signing the
affidavit. Fanning, who testified in front of the grand jury Wednesday, said
he didn't coerce Sharon Peralta in any way. 

"It couldn't be farther from the truth. Obviously, I deny that there was any
coercion," Fanning said before testifying. 

Dave Peralta also has denied pressuring Sharon Peralta into signing the Oct.
28 affidavit.  He has said the bondage and sex on Oct. 27, the day of the
incident, was consensual. 

A grand jury indicted Peralta Wednesday after several witnesses, including
Sharon Peralta, testified in closed-door proceedings. Dave Peralta's
attorney, Stephen London, said his client was "shocked" by the indictment. 

If convicted, Peralta, a former police officer, could face up to 10 years in
prison -- though maximum sentences are rare for first-time offenders.  

After the grand jury returned the indictment, Sharon Peralta said she was
"relieved."

"It is still going to be a long road ahead. I have to heal and my family has
to heal, but it is a relief that he was indicted after what he did to me,"
she said. 

New judge might take case

While the case was assigned to Sanborn and he handled the bond hearing on
Thursday morning, it could end in someone else's hands. All five St. Bernard
judges recused themselves in the Peralta's divorce case, after Sharon
Peralta raised questions of fairness citing the political relationship
between Dave Peralta and the elected judges.

Assistant Attorney General David Weilbaecher, who is handling the
prosecution, would not commet on whether he plans to ask for an outside
judge to be assigned by the state Supreme Court, referring questions to a
spokeswoman for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. 

The spokeswoman, Laura Gerdes Colligan,  said the office is "waiting to see
what actions the judges take, so we will not speculate on that at this
time." He also added that "there is still an option that they might recuse
themselves."

Colligan declined to say whether Weilbaecher would prefer the judges' to
recuse themselves. 

After receiving the case from State Police, St. Bernard District Attorney
Jack Rowley recused his office of the criminal case, leaving it to the
attorney general's office.

Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell, who heads the public corruption
and special prosecutions unit, speculated after the grand jury indictment on
Wednesday that the parish judges might recuse themselves as they did in the
Peralta's divorce.

The Oct. 27 incident

Sharon Peralta has said that on Oct. 27, her 49th birthday, Dave Peralta
handcuffed her before hanging her by her hands from a rope tied to the
ceiling and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. After he removed the
handcuffs, she said she fled to another room in the home and that he
followed her and raped her in a bed there.

(Read Sharon Peralta's interview: He raped me and he threatened me.)

Dave Peralta has said the bondage and sex both were consensual and
activities that he and his wife had engaged in previously. And he said last
month "that is what she wanted for her birthday. That is what she asked
for."

He said Sharon Peralta concocted the rape accusation out of spite, and that
injuries recorded during a medical examination the day of the incident were
self-inflicted. 

(Read Dave Peralta's interview: I didn't rape my wife, bondage sex was
consensual.)

The couple discussed the criminal investigation and details of their sex
life publicly in the media and the courts in recent months, as they engaged
in a bitter divorce. 

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune does not usually name people who report they
were the victims of sex crimes. Sharon Peralta has publicly discussed her
allegation in media interviews and in court filings. 

A registered sexual assault nurse examiner who saw Sharon Peralta at the
Interim LSU Hospital in New Orleans Oct. 27 noted in her report that Sharon
Peralta had a vaginal abrasion and a cervical strain. The report also stated
there was "parallel reddened skin areas to both buttock cheeks" where she
stated "she was spanked very hard with flat palm," and it noted a reddened
area where she stated "she was grabbed to back of the neck."

The nurse wrote that Sharon Peralta had said that she was afraid of her
husband and that she had a "very sad affect." A rape kit was provided to
State Police, according to the report.

Dave Peralta, in an interview last month, said Sharon Peralta's "so-called
injuries" detailed in the medical report "were staged" and
"self-perpetrated."

"I think she did it," Dave Peralta said last month. "I can't prove it, you
know, but it didn't happen as a result of me." 

See and download the complaint Sharon Peralta filed against State Police
below:

All links available from NOLA.com
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/04/dave_peraltas_bond_set_at_2000.h
tml