A former Lafayette and Vermilion educator accused of trying to create child pornography should undergo a psychological evaluation, his lawyers and a prosecutor agree.
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.
The motion, which hasn't yet been granted by a judge, does say that both De La Paz and prosecutors in the case agree the evaluation is appropriate.
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.
