[StBernard] Investigators can't yet read files seized from St. Bernard President Dave Peralta's office, judge orders

[Westley Annis]

Investigators can't yet read files seized from St. Bernard President Dave
Peralta's office, judge orders

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on August 04, 2014 at 12:39 PM, updated August 04, 2014 at 5:45 PM

The Louisiana attorney general's office temporarily is barred from viewing
St. Bernard Parish government files seized from the offices of parish
president Dave Peralta and other administrators last month, a state judge
ruled on Monday.

Judge Jacques Sanborn also said that he is recusing himself from the case.
So a final determination on whether investigators will get a chance to
examine the records will come after the state Supreme Court appoints an ad
hoc judge to the case.

State investigators and parish sheriff's officials on July 25 searched
Peralta's home and office, seizing computers and documents from the
government building in Chalmette. In seeking a search warrant, investigators
said they had "a reasonable probability" of finding evidence of intimidation
of a witness, obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office, according to
court records. 

A grand jury on April 23 indicted Peralta on a charge of sexual battery of
his now ex-wife Sharon Schaefer. She accused him of handcuffing her, forcing
her to perform oral sex and raping her at their Meraux home last fall.
Peralta, who last pleaded not guilty to the charge, has denied wrongdoing,
saying the bondage and sex both were consensual and activities that he and
his then-wife had engaged in previously.

St. Bernard Parish government last week requested a temporary restraining
order barring the attorney general's office "from viewing or further copying
the materials seized on July 25, 2014, from the Government Complex."

Sanborn signed that temporary order. But a new judge will have to decide
whether portions or all of the seized materials are in fact off limits for
investigators.

In its petition for the restraining order, St. Bernard government alleged
that "contained within the seized contents are materials that are sensitive
and privileged as attorney-client communications."

In the filing for that restraining order, there is an affidavit from the
parish IT director, Jeffrey Brannon, stating that the attorney general's
office has "demanded delivery of a copy of one of the mail serves" that
"contained the email boxes of approximately 300 employees." There are also
affidavits from David Gorbaty, who unofficially is acting as the parish
chief administrative officer, and Peralta, each stating that their laptops
were seized from their offices.

In his affidavit, Peralta also states that his desktop and cell phone were
taken and that he had "privileged communications on my personal cell phone,
desktop computer and email servers."

The restraining order hearing on Monday came the same morning that Judge
Michael Kirby agreed to dismiss a contempt order against Peralta in the
separate civil case related to his divorce from Schaefer. She claimed in
court documents filed on July 8 that Peralta "has continued to harass and
threaten" her. 

The filing also stated Peralta "has disrupted her well being" by sending her
"e-mails from various addresses, using the identity of mover (Schaefer) and
her family members to post comments on NOLA.com, and contacting mover's
family members."

At Schaefer's request, Kirby dismissed the contempt charge without prejudice
- meaning the matter could be brought up again in the future. Peralta had
argued for the matter to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it could
not be refilled at a later date.

Peralta's attorney Stephen London said on Monday that Peralta "has not
communicated with Sharon" Schaefer at all, either by phone or in emails.
London said that if Peralta had been called to the stand the parish
president would have invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against
testifying, due to the ongoing criminal case against him.

Schaefer's new attorney Stephen Rue, who officially was appointed as her
counsel on Monday, said that "we will be refiling in the future, at the
appropriate time, after any of the third parties have completed whatever
they are completing," seemingly alluding to the attorney general's office
and its criminal case and to the seizure of the computers and government
files.

"We are dismissing the case for now for reasons that I cannot disclose but
are in the best interest of my client and the third parties," Rue added.

In the sexual battery case, there is a gag order in effect barring Peralta
and Schaefer, and their attorneys, from speaking publicly about that case.

In both the sexual battery case and the divorce case, all five of the St.
Bernard judges have recused themselves and the state Supreme Court has
appointed judges to hear the cases in their stead.