[StBernard] St. Bernard President Dave Peralta pleads not guilty to felony stalking charge

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard President Dave Peralta pleads not guilty to felony stalking
charge

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta pleaded not guilty Monday (Nov.
10) to a felony stalking charge he faces in Covington.

A St. Tammany Parish grand jury indicted Peralta Sept. 24 after listening to
testimony from Peralta's ex-wife, Sharon Schaefer.

Peralta also faces prosecution in St. Bernard Parish for a charge of sexual
battery of Schaefer, related to an October 2013 incident in which she said
he raped her when the two were still married. The St. Tammany indictment
accused him of later stalking her after she moved to Slidell.

Peralta has said he's innocent of both charges, that the sex with Schaefer
was consensual and that he didn't stalk her afterward.

(Read the full preview of Peralta's Covington arraignment.)

Assistant Attorney General David Weilbaecher is prosecuting both cases
against Peralta. Attorney Martin Regan is defending Peralta against the
stalking charge.

The arraignment was heard before Judge Richard Swartz at the Covington
courthouse.

Regan said during the arraignment hearing on Monday morning that Weilbaecher
had agreed to provide him with electronic copies of email and text messages
that prosectors have alleged were sent by Peralta to Schaefer and were part
of the harassment that led to the stalking charges. 

Weilbaecher is expected to provide them before Dec. 15. At a Oct. 29 hearing
on the sexual battery case in St. Bernard, Regan said some of the email and
text messages that prosecutors say were sent by Peralta "have been tampered
with."

Dave Peralta descends Covington courthouse steps
St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta descends Covington courthouse
steps on Monday, Nov. 10, 2014, after pleading not guilty to felony stalking
of his wife.
Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
 
He said that electronic copies of the documents would allow his team to
review their metadata, which might confirm who sent the email and text
messages. Weilbaecher has so far only provided the defense with hard copies
of email messages and other documents.

The stalking indictment came nearly two months after state investigators and
St. Bernard sheriff's officials seized computers and documents from parish
administrative offices and Peralta's home.

Schaefer said in civil court filings in July that Peralta had "continued to
harass and threaten" her and "disrupted her well being" by sending her
"emails from various addresses," and that he used the identity of Schaefer
and her family members to post comments on NOLA.com about her and to contact
her family.

Following the stalking indictment, Weilbaecher filed a motion in the St.
Bernard sexual battery case to revoke Peralta's bond, citing the stalking
charge as the basis to detain him. Peralta currently is out of jail on a
$35,000 bond in the stalking case and a $20,000 bond in the sexual battery
case.

That bond revocation hearing in St. Bernard is set for Nov. 19.

The St. Tammany case is next set for a hearing in January, according to a
criminal clerk in the courtroom Monday. In October, all the case filings in
the stalking case were sealed, meaning that they are not available to the
public.   

See and download the signed stalking indictment returned by the St. Tammany
grand jury:
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/11/st_bernard_president_dave_pera_4
.html