Earlier this week, lawyers for a former Lafayette and Vermilion educator accused of trying to create child pornography filed a motion to have him undergo a psychological evaluation.
Yesterday, they withdrew the motion. The court records also show they tried to have the withdrawal sealed - but the judge unsealed it.
On Wednesday, the attorney for Jacob De La Paz filed a motion to have him transported from the St. Martin Parish jail where he's being held pending trial to a Lafayette clinical psychologist for an evaluation.
The evaluation, which is scheduled to last from 9:45 a.m. until 5 p.m., would be conducted next month, records show. But yesterday, another motion was filed to withdraw the original one, and it was filed under seal. Also yesterday, the judge granted the motion to withdraw - and ordered everything unsealed.
"IT IS ORDERED that the MOTION TO WITHDRAW (Rec. Doc. 30) is GRANTED," the judge's order states. "IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the MOTION TO WITHDRAW is to be unsealed and that this Order be entered in the record unsealed."
The motion to withdraw does not provide any information as to why De La Paz wants to withdraw his request for a psychological evaluation.
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.
De La Paz 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, which currently is set for September 25.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum 15 years in federal prison, with a maximum of 30 years.
