A former Grand Isle Council member and police officer has been convicted of molesting two girls dating back to the late 1980s.
On Thursday, a Jefferson Parish jury found Elgene Gary Sr. guilty of three counts of sexual battery after deliberating for five hours, District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. said in a press release. Because Louisiana has more severe penalties for abuse of children under 13, two of the charges are related to one victim before and after her 13th birthday.
Both Grand Isle victims testfied during the trial, as did a Michigan woman who told the jury he abused her when she was 10 years old and he was visiting Michigan on a hunting trip.
Gary, now 81, was elected to the the Town Council in 2020 after serving on the police department and Grand Isle Port Commission. As a police officer, he was one of three to face an extortion charge in 2016 after a bar patron was detained after a fight and threatened with arrest if he didn't pay for a broken door.
He was arrested in 2022 and 2023 on the sexual battery charges.
The first victim said she only felt safe enough to report the abuse to law enforcement after she had to leave Grand Isle during Hurricane Ida in 2021. Then 16, she reported the crime to the Louisiana State Police in Baton Rouge.
She said Gary had molested her from the time she was 7 until she was 15.
"He told her to 'be quiet,' and 'this is our secret' as he abused her," Connick said in the release. "When she resisted, he’d tell her, 'Don’t you love me?' At times, she hid when Gary was near."
She sat through forensic interviews at the Audrey Hepburn CARE Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, now renamed the Morgan Rae Center for Hope at Manning Family Children’s hospital, and the Children’s Advocacy Services in Denham Springs.
That investigation led to a 40-year-old woman coming forward in January 2022, who said Gary had molested her once, and stopped when her brother woke up, when she was between the ages of 7 and 10 between 1988-91.
A third woman testified that she was abused in Michigan when she was 10 years old in 1993. Gary has not been charged in Michigan, but the woman's testimony was presented to show Gary's pattern of behavior.
Gary denied al of the charges. His attorney argued that the women gave inconsistent testimony and that detectives did not thoroughly investigate.
“They deserved to be believed, and they deserve justice,” Assistant District Attorney Brooke Harris told jurors Thursday. She prosecuted the case with ADA Erich Cathey.
Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Gary on June 16.