A Youngsville man has been arrested - again - and accused of using a computer to try to have sex with a child.
Shawn Copeland, 51, was booked by Youngsville Police with indecent behavior with a juvenile, computer-aided solicitation of a minor and possession of child sexual abuse material.
This arrest follows a two-week investigation, which remains active. Additional arrests are expected, Youngsville Police say.
We found that Copeland was arrested on similar charges by Louisiana State Police back in 2011. At that time, a press release from LSP stated that he was living in Maurice and had been booked with computer-aided solicitation of a minor. In that case, he thought he was having a conversation with a 14-year-old girl. During the course of the chat, Copeland initiated a sexually explicit conversation. He also requested to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex at a location in Lafayette Parish, state police alleged. When he showed up at that location, he was arrested.
Court records show he was allowed to plead guilty to a revised charge of cyberstalking, and was given one year in jail - which was suspended. He also received hree years of supervised probation and a fine of $350. But a couple years after that, in 2016, he was given a first-offender pardon by the state Department of Corrections, which restored the citizenship rights he may have lost by his conviction.
