ST. BERNARD PARISH (WGNO) – Sharon Schaefer, the St. Bernard Parish President’s ex-wife, is now in hiding. Her attorney Stephen Rue tells us she fears for her life.
“She dreadfully fears Mr. Peralta. She dreadfully fears based on the reality of what she claims that she has incurred at his own hands, at his own doing,” says Rue.
St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta has been indicted on criminal charges by two different grand juries in two different parishes, first on a sexual battery charge and then on a felony stalking charge.
Now a civil lawsuit has been filed in St. Bernard.
“It’s time for him to answer directly to my client,” explains Rue.
In the lawsuit Rue outlines what allegedly happened in Peralta’s home nearly a year ago, the day Schaefer turned 49. The lawsuit says David Peralta handcuffed, tied up, hung Sharon Schaefer from a rope attached to the ceiling, restrained, brutally beat and battered, threatened and prohibited her from leaving.
Rue says that night the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office refused to handle her complaint, and Schaefer sought help from the state. Rue says that night she was interviewed there was a rape kit done that showed she had vaginal tearing and pictures were taken.
“It does deal with severe marks on her body as my client claims at the hands of Peralta. Literally, you can see a hand print,” says Rue, “No man, whether married divorced or otherwise, should ever do these things to a woman. For the rest of her life every birthday that she has she’ll be thinking of what David Peralta did to her.”
WGNO tried contacting Parish President Dave Peralta, but his executive assistant says he is not commenting on the civil lawsuit calling it a personal matter.
Of the photos that WGNO’s Vanessa Bolano was able to view, one show the room where the alleged rape, sexual battery and sexual assault happened. Inside the virtually empty room one could see the rope that was allegedly used to restrain Schaefer hanging from the ceiling. A second picture was of Schaefer’s backside with showed red, raw skin and what appeared to be at least one hand mark.