A Louisiana judge is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old friend of his daughter after she joined the family for a vacation last year, court records show.
The teen told Louisiana State Police that Jeff Perilloux, a district judge in St. John the Baptist Parish, put his fingers inside the bottom of her bathing suit during the family trip to Destin, Florida, in July 2017, the Advocate reports.
The 50-year-old judge then repeatedly asked her to let him go further and said not to be scared when the girl retreated, she told investigators.
The girl also claimed that Perilloux touched her breasts earlier in the summer while giving her a massage. A friend of the girl who was in the room at the time told investigators that a three-way massage had taken place at one point, but she couldn’t see Perilloux closely because the room was darkened, she told investigators.
Louisiana State Police have read dozens of text messages between the judge and the victim. Investigators have also interviewed several friends of his daughter, including two girls who said he had patted their backsides and made them feel uncomfortable. One girl told investigators that Perilloux was “creepy,” according to the newspaper.
“Hey, are we cool about what happened the other day?” Perilloux asked one of the girls in a text message.
The girl then told her parents about the alleged incident.
Perilloux’s attorney, David Courcelle, said the judge “categorically denies” the allegations.
“He’s been blindsided by this,” Courcelle told the newspaper. “No one from Louisiana State Police has contacted him.”
Perilloux, for his part, said he had no immediate plans to step down and promised to fight the allegations.
“I will spend every nickel that I have to defend myself and my family on these allegations,” he told L’Observateur newspaper. “I am not a wealthy man, but I will spend every penny that I have to defend (myself) from these allegations.”
The Advocate reports that two other judges in Louisiana’s 40th Judicial District recused themselves when state investigators sought a search warrant in connection to Perilloux. A retired judge later appointed by the state Supreme Court declined to comment when reached at home by the newspaper.
“It’s an open investigation,” Judge Jerome Barbera III told the newspaper. “I can’t talk about it.”
A spokeswoman for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation in Florida was nearly finished and they were coordinating with the State Attorney’s Office.
“They were also conferring with officials in Louisiana,” spokeswoman Michelle Nicholson told L’Observateur. “It is just a matter of some people making decisions on whether or not they will be pressing charges and what the general charges are going to be.”
Messages seeking comment from Louisiana State Police were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Louisiana State Police Sgt. Jared Sandifer said the agency had no comment when reached Wednesday by The Post.



