A Louisiana sheriff admitted his office was “absolutely dropped” in a 2005 rape claim that was never investigated—a screw-up that gave the rapist partial custody of the child that resulted from the alleged assault.
As WBRZ reports, Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards said his department recently found that Krista Abelseth’s rape complaint — which was filed in 2015, a decade after the alleged assault — was never properly vetted for investigation. was given.
Against her wishes, the alleged rapist currently shares custody of a baby girl who became pregnant during the incident.
“Our department absolutely dropped the ball, and we must just make our mistake,” Edwards said in a statement Thursday.
“However, it is a mistake, which has never been a problem before or since, and we must make sure to keep it that way.”
The victim found some satisfaction in admission.
“They acknowledge that this is at least a big step forward, so we have it going for us,” Abelseth told News Nation Now.
The case has been handed over to the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to pursue charges.
Abelseth previously told WBRZ that she was raped when she was 16, when a man nearly twice her age promised to take her home from a local restaurant after a night out with friends.
About John Barnes, who was 30 at the time, Abeleseth said, “Instead of bringing me home, he brought me to his house.” “Once inside, he raped me on his living room sofa.”
The teenager became pregnant and has a daughter, who is now a teenager herself.
When the girl was 5 years old, Barnes reportedly discovered through DNA testing that he was the father and was able to persuade a judge to grant 50/50 custody to her and Abelseth.
Abelseth filed rape charges against Barnes in 2015 after she learned it was within Louisiana’s statute of limitations.
