Man not to contact youth

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 3, 2009 - Page: 4B

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An Erath man accused of sending sexually explicit e-mails to a 16-year-old deaf student pleaded no contest Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

 State District Judge Trudy White put 30-year-old Brandon Louis Veronie Sr. on bench probation for two years and forbid him from contacting — by any means — the victim or her family.

The judge, through a sign language interpreter, also barred Veronie from having unsupervised contact with any minor, except his own children.

Veronie, a graduate of the Louisiana School for the Deaf on Brightside Lane, was one of four people arrested on charges relating to the same girl who was a student at the school.

An arrest warrant said Veronie sent multiple “strong sexually explicit’’ text messages and e-mails to the girl on Oct. 28, 2007.

Prosecutor Sue Bernie told White the e-mails sought to entice the girl to leave her parents’ home to meet with Veronie.

The warrants says Veronie suggested in one of the messages that he pick up the girl and take her to a field to have sex with her. Baton Rouge police have said such a meeting never took place.

Veronie’s attorney, Jim Holt, said the no-contest plea was in his client’s best interest.

“We don’t endorse (Bernie’s) version of the facts to the letter,’’ he said outside the courtroom.

A no-contest plea has the same effect as a guilty plea in criminal court but cannot be used as an admission of guilt in civil court.

Amanda Elizabeth Key, Christopher Joseph Watson and Nathan Daniel Boyes also were arrested in 2007 for indecent behavior with the girl.

Key and Boyes were teachers at the school at the time, and Watson was a former teacher.

Key and Watson each have pleaded guilty to a felony charge of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and are on probation for five years. The case against Boyes is pending.