PROSECUTORS SHOULDN'T BE ABOVE THE LAW

BY GIVING POWERFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY, THE SUPREME COURT LEAVES THEIR VICTIMS WITH NO RECOURSE.

- BILLY BINION

WHEN A STORM flooded Baton Rouge in 2016, Priscilla Lefebure took shelter with her cousin and her cousin's husband, Barrett Boeker, W an assistant warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. During her stay at her cousin's house on the prison grounds, Lefebure later reported, Boeker raped her twice-first in front of a mirror so she would have to watch, and again days later with a foreign object.

Lefebure's allegations led to a yearslong court battle-not against her accused rapist but against District Attorney Samuel C. D'Aquilla, who seemed determined to make sure that Boeker was never indicted. As the chief prosecutor for West Feliciana Parish, which includes Angola, D'Aquilla sabotaged the case before it began.

When a grand jury considered Lefebure's charges, D'Aquilla declined to present the results of a medical exam that found bruises, redness, and irritation on Lefebure's legs, arms, and cervix. Instead, he offered a police report with his own handwritten notes, which aimed to highlight discrepancies in her story.

D'Aquilla opted not to call as witnesses the two investigators on the case, the nurse who took Lefebure's rape kit, or the coroner who stored it. And he refused to meet or speak with Lefebure at all, telling local news outlets he was "uncomfortable" doing so.

The lawyer that Boeker hired to represent him was a cousin of the district attorney, Cy Jerome D'Aquila (who spells his name slightly differently). Boeker did not need his services very long, since the grand jury predictably declined to indict him.