WGNO

Court date pushed back for former teacher accused of having threesome with other teacher & teen student

Shelley S. Dufresne and Rachel Respess are both accused of having sex with a Destrehan High School student.

GRETNA, La. (WGNO) – Still no formal charges for former Destrehan High School teacher Rachel Respess. Her next court hearing is June 26, 2015.

Respess and another Destrehan High teacher are accused of having a threesome with a teen student in September.

The other teacher, Shelley Dufresne, still doesn’t face formal charges in Jefferson Parish either.

Dufresne has already pleaded guilty to having sex with that student in Saint Charles Parish. But she won’t go to jail or have to register as a sex offender. A judge ordered she pay a thousand dollar fine and will be on probation for three years.

Respess’s case has been pushed back twice now.

She has not had to appear in court since she doesn’t face formal charges. But her lawyer was at the Jefferson Parish courthouse Thursday. This is what he had to say when WGNO Anchor Jacki Jing asked him about the progress with his client’s case:

“I said it from the start, I have nothing more to say than they did not have consensual sex. Rachel is working and trying to move on with her life, but you can’t move on with your life until this matter is fully resolved.

“I think obviously the plea, a month ago, in Saint Charles might have slowed things down a bit and I think they were talking to the family of the young man and they’re talking to me, and hopefully June 26th there will be an answer,” said Jeffrey Smith, the attorney for Rachel Respess.

Smith wouldn’t reveal where Respess is now working.

At this time, neither Respess or Dufresne face charges in Jefferson Parish.