Spyware evidence approved for trial
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Intercepted computer communications between a then-Redemptorist High School teacher/coach and a 14-year-old female student can be used by prosecutors, a state judge ruled Monday.
The girl’s mother installed “Tattletale’’ spyware software on her daughter’s computer after suspecting something inappropriate was going on between her daughter and Ray Samuel Clement III.
Clement was arrested in January 2007 and indicted three months later on charges of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with juveniles and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles.
The charges involve the 14-year-old girl and another female Redemptorist student who was 15. Clement is accused of having sex with the 15-year-old.
Clement’s attorney had asked that the electronic wiretap evidence involving the 14-year-old be suppressed, but state District Judge Tony Marabella denied the request Monday.
Marabella, who noted that the girl’s mother was very concerned about her minor daughter’s behavior, said the woman did not need her daughter’s consent to place the spyware software on her computer.
The judge said there is “no question’’ the mother acted in her daughter’s best interest.
In a separate ruling, Marabella refused to suppress statements Clement made to investigators at the time of his arrest.
An affidavit says Clement admitted in an interview with the Louisiana Department of Justice that, aside from the incidents with the two students, he had kissed other students.
Clement’s attorney, Kyle Kershaw, said he needed to confer with Clement before deciding whether to appeal either of the judge’s rulings. Clement was not in court Monday.
The state Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case.
Clement is accused of rubbing and kissing the neck of the 14-year-old in his bedroom in November 2006.
Authorities say he had sex with the 15-year-old during the Christmas holidays in 2006 after he bought a case of beer, parked near the LSU Lakes to drink with her and took her to his apartment.
After his arrest, Clement — now 25 — resigned from his job at the school where he taught earth sciences and algebra, and also coached track and field.
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