Video voyeurism charges revised; trial to resume July 16
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The video voyeurism trial of a Breaux Bridge man accused of taking pictures of young bikini-clad girls at Blue Bayou Water Park in Baton Rouge will resume July 16, a judge said Wednesday.
State District Judge Bonnie Jackson declared a mistrial last week in the middle of Duane Champagne’s bench trial because the bill of information used by prosecutors to charge him did not identify a specific victim.
Prosecutors amended the bill of information, identifying two victims — who were 10 years old and 12 years old at the time of the June 12, 2007, incident — by their initials.
The 12-year-old girl, who is now 14, completed her testimony last week before Jackson declared the mistrial. The prosecution’s fifth witness was testifying at the time.
Rather than retry the entire case, which would have required the Mississippi girl to testify again, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to pick up July 16 where the case left off last week.
East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives found dozens of images of 10-to-13-year-old girls in bikinis stored in Champagne’s digital camera and cell phone, sheriff’s officials said at the time. The photographs focused on the girls’ buttocks and breasts, the officials said.
Detectives and state forensic examiners also discovered thousands of images of girls stored in Champagne’s home computer, officials said. A sampling of the photos shows most of them were of girls in bathing suits.
If convicted of video voyeurism, a felony, Champagne could face up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.
Champagne was a physical education teacher at Sts. Leo-Seton Catholic School in Lafayette at the time of his June 13, 2007, arrest.
He was fired about a week later.
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