CHALMETTE, La. (WGNO) – There’s a gag order in place in the sexual battery case involving St. Bernard Parish President David Peralta. So Monday afternoon, neither the suspect, Peralta, nor the victim in the investigation, his ex-wife Sharon Schaefer, spoke with reporters outside of court.
Peralta and his attorney, Martin Regan, accuse Schaefer of previously violating the gag order. Her appearance Monday was part of a contempt of court hearing.
According to Regan, Schaefer violated the gag order when she spoke with reporters in September in St. Tammany Parish. At that time, Peralta had just been indicted on a felony stalking charge.
“When they asked me about being terrorized and stalked, yes I talked,” Schaefer told the judge Monday afternoon. She became emotional at one point and told the judge, “He (Peralta) is a monster who should be locked up or put down.”
Schaefer told the judge that she only spoke with reporters about the stalking charge and not the sexual battery case.
But the judge told her that the gag order extended to the stalking charge as well as a civil lawsuit that Schaefer has filed in the case.
The hearing will resume on January 5th.
Also, the judge set a March 2, 2015 trial date for Peralta in St. Bernard Parish regarding the sexual battery charge.