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De La Paz trial set for December

U.S. Western District Courthouse
Posted at 3:48 PM, Sep 25, 2023

Jacob De La Paz now has a December trial date.

The former educator had been scheduled for trial today, but that date was postponed last month. At a status conference today, the parties agreed to a trial date of December 18.

De La Paz, who was a teacher in Vermilion Parish and at a Lafayette Catholic school, was indicted in May by a federal grand jury.

He was fired from his most recent teaching job, at St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette, after a video surfaced showing him saying sexually explicit things to someone he said he tutors.

As KATC investigates reported, De La Paz had previously been disciplined in Arkansas for inappropriate text messages to a student.

Despite that, he was hired in Vermilion Parish, and later by St. Thomas More High School.

Arkansas authorities never suspended his teaching certificate, but Louisiana did after he was booked on a federal hold. A complaint was filed against him, and he was ordered held without bond until a grand jury heard his case. After the grand jury returned the indictment, a judge ordered him held without bond until his trial.

If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum 15 years in federal prison, with a maximum of 30 years.