[Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include additional information about property seizure in accordance with cyberstalking laws.]
It was only a matter of time. Christopher Hebert, the 36-year-old immoral mastermind behind the Facebook mug shot fan page Busted in Acadiana, was booked into the Lafayette Parish Jail Wednesday afternoon on one count each of stalking and cyberstalking.
Lafayette Police Cpl. Paul Mouton confirms that Hebert’s arrest is based on a series of complaints of both electronic and phone threats filed by a female victim late last year. Police will not release details on the alleged crimes, but Mouton says new developments on the investigation surfaced in recent weeks and led to the arrest.
The alleged victim, who asked to remain anonymous due to personal safety concerns, contacted The Independent following our Sept. 21 cover story, Busted: Busted in Acadiana. The story publicly identified the BIA administrator as Christopher Hebert, the unemployed husband of Lafayette Police officer Amanda Hebert, and exposed several disturbing antics of the page’s creator that went far beyond publishing mug shots and other public information.
Hebert's arrest is unrelated to Busted in Acadiana.
Cyberstalking is defined by Louisiana law as using “electronic communication of any words or language threatening to inflict bodily harm to any person or to such person’s child, sibling, spouse, or dependent, or physical injury to the property of any person, or for the purpose of extorting money or other things of value from any person.”
According to the statute, cyberstalking can also mean “electronically mail or electronically communicate to another repeatedly, whether or not conversation ensues, for the purpose of threatening, terrifying, or harassing any person,” or “to knowingly make any false statement concerning death, injury, illness, disfigurement, indecent conduct, or criminal conduct of the person electronically mailed or of any member of the person’s family or household with the intent to threaten, terrify, or harass.”
Mouton cannot confirm or deny whether Hebert's computers and other electronic devices were seized Wednesday afternoon due to the ongoing investigation, but Mouton says protocol allows for items related to the investigation to be seized if there is probable cause. Further review of said assets can lead to additional charges, Mouton says.
If convicted of cyberstalking, which Mouton says is a felony, Hebert faces up to one year in prison and up to $2,000 in fines, or both. If convicted for stalking, Hebert could receive a maximum one year prison sentence and up to $1,000 in fines.
“He is truly a sociopath and he should be behind bars,” the alleged victim said in an email to The Ind a week ago. “I know that I live in fear that he will some day really act out his threats. I just hope that he is caught and prosecuted before that happens.”
Hebert has been photographed at the Lafayette Parish Jail at least once before Wednesday’s arrest. In December 2001, he was booked for public intimidation, disturbing the peace by appearing intoxicated and remaining where forbidden following an incident on Jefferson Street.
It’s unclear whether Hebert’s mug shot will be appearing on Busted in Acadiana in coming days. The BIA page was shut down Sept. 9 after a UL student first revealed Hebert’s identity, but Hebert has been republishing the site off and on over the past few weeks. The site was still publicly available as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Hebert, who has repeatedly denied any involvement with Busted in Acadiana, told his faithful followers recently that if the BIA administrator were ever arrested, the mug shot would be published on BIA. The only question is whether Hebert will live up to his word.
As of 12 p.m. Thursday, Hebert remained in the Lafayette Parish Jail on a $50,000 bond.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
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MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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