'Sexting' case against ex-teacher pends in court system
By Todd C. Elliott
The unusual case of Jacqueline Fruge – a former Eunice High School teacher involved in the “sexting” case that moved from misdemeanor charges in City Court to a felony charge in 27th Judicial District Court – remains in the judicial’s system bureaucracy.
Her case, by consent of all parties in June, was moved from City Court to District Court.
As recently as two weeks ago, Fruge was not in the district court system, complete with a defendant number. Last week, her name appeared as a defendant, though there was not yet any case history reflected with it.
However it may not be so unusual.
Laura Rougeau, Fruge’s counsel, said that it may just an indication of business-as-usual, rather than “business unusual”, for the district court system.
“It’s in the D.A.’s hands at this point, it’s not unusual that sometimes it takes six months to a year for me to hear back on certain cases,” said Rougeau. “(Fruge) had already been charged, but (the D.A.’s office) were just going to amend the charges. And that’s the last that I heard.”
Rougeau said there have not been any proceedings in the matter since the shift to the state court jurisdiction.
As reported three months ago, the decision to move the misdemeanor charges from Eunice City Court to District Court as amended felony charges came after Judge Lynette Feucht heard pre-trial argument from Rougeau that the initial charge against her client does not fit the alleged circumstances.
Before Feucht could rule on that contention, Rougeau and prosecutor Jay Caswell reached agreement on moving the matter to district court, a switch which offers something for both sides.
It was reported that Rougeau indicated to the judge that Fruge would allegedly plead to felony charges of “obscenity” rather than “prohibited sexual conduct between educator and student”.
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