Fall Operation Boo Dat 2021 Recovers Five Missing/Endangered Teens and Makes Thirty Arrests Across New Orleans Metro Area

DOJ Press


New Orleans, LA
– The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) New Orleans
Task Force (USMS Eastern District of Louisiana) sponsored its annual
Operation Boo Dat 2021 from mid-October to December 24, 2021. The
partnership between New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), Orleans Parish
Sheriff’s Office (OPSO), Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO),
Louisiana State Police (LSP), and USMS New Orleans Task Force resulted
in thirty (30) arrests with seventeen (17) of the arrests being for
felony sex offender registration violations. Five (5) missing/endangered
teenagers were also recovered during the operation. Tangipahoa Parish
Sheriff’s Office (TPSO), U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Investigations (HSI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) New Orleans
Field Office, LA Department of Child and Family Services (LA DCFS), LA
Probation and Parole (LA P&P), Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office, St.
Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Crimestoppers GNO also provided
support during the operation.

Highlights of Operation Boo Dat
2021 included:

– The recoveries of five missing/endangered
teens with one being a 16-year-old female JPSO runaway who left her
residence in Marrero (Jefferson Parish) by allegedly stealing a
relative’s vehicle and a handgun. That teen, who was known to have ties
to Bourbon Street and the Chef Highway area of New Orleans, was
recovered at a residence in the 7900 block of Benson Street New Orleans,
LA and was located living with several adults to include an adult female
strip club dancer. While not included in the three recoveries, a
17-year-old female who had been missing/runaway for some time was
arrested in Hammond, LA on a Tangipahoa Parish felony warrant for Human
Trafficking. That female was also wanted on a warrant out of Natchez,
Mississippi for stealing a vehicle. She is known to have prior ties to
several female runaways from New Orleans as well as ties to organized
gang activities. The second recovery involved a 14-year-old female with
possible sex trafficking ties being recovered at a motel off Read Blvd.
in New Orleans East. She was located along with a 17-year-old female and
a 15-year-old female staying in a motel room. The room smelled of
Marijuana and alcohol. The girls advised that before moving to that room
they were in another motel room with adult males from Baton Rouge, LA
who left/stranded them to return to Baton Rouge, LA due to the adult
men’s cousin being shot. A third recovery was the result of a collateral
lead request from USMS Middle District of Louisiana to attempt to locate
a 15-year-old runaway female for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.
That teen had prior human sex trafficking issues in Baton Rouge, but her
pimp had recently been murdered. She was located living with her
17-year-old boyfriend and one of his relatives at an apartment in the
12100 block of North I-10 Service Road New Orleans, LA. Information was
also developed that the female was regularly leaving the apartment to
meet with adult males in New Orleans East. The case is also possibly
associated with an armed robbery that occurred in the same area. The
fourth and fifth recoveries were of two sisters ages 15 and 16 with one
missing out of St. Tammany Parish, LA and the younger sister missing out
of Baton Rouge, LA. Both females may be victims of adult(s) felony
criminal sexual activities and they were recovered at an apartment in
Baton Rouge with critical support from USMS Middle District of Louisiana
and Baton Rouge Police Department.

– The early morning December
10, 2021, arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Lorenzo Oliver on a December
2021 felony warrant from the New Orleans Police Department related to
the alleged First-Degree Rape of a 12-year-old female victim in an
abandoned residence on the West Bank of New Orleans. Oliver, who had
been featured in local media in 2013 for an arrest that involved him
following an adult female into the bathroom of the Westwego, LA library
and attempting to rape her, was convicted in 2015 of Attempted Forcible
Rape and Sexual Battery in Jefferson Parish and must register as a sex
offender for life.


– The October 19, 2021, federal arrest of a
sex offender for the alleged Failure to Report International Travel to
Ethiopia to the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office as required by Sex
Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). His original 2004
Pierce County, Washington conviction was for Molestation in the Second
Degree (2 Counts) involving a 12-year-old female with molestation
allegations dating back several years prior. He was located and arrested
in Gonzales, LA and the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office assisted in
the investigation.


– The October 25, 2021, arrest of sex
offender James Sorrell at a local homeless shelter in New Orleans where
he was found to be staying under a false name. Sorrell was wanted on a
Texas Department of Corrections Parole warrant from November of 2019
based on a prior Failure to Register as a Sex Offender conviction and he
also had active Austin, Texas PD and Dane County, Wisconsin warrants for
Failure to Register as a Sex Offender. His original 1987 conviction in
Idaho involved a 7-year-old female victim.

– The October 26,
2021, arrest of sex offender David Douglas Smith who was wanted out of
Jackson County, Mississippi on a Failure to Register as a Sex Offender
warrant from June of 2019. His original 1996 East Baton Rouge Parish
conviction was for Molestation of a Juvenile (9-year-old female). He was
found in the Hammond, LA area in late October 2021 based on a collateral
lead from USMS Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force (Southern
Mississippi USMS Office) Smith had been living in Tangipahoa Parish for
over two years without SORNA compliance.

– The October 29, 2021,
arrest of Lamonte Versill Morris on a collateral lead request from USMS
Southern Texas Corpus Christi Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force.
Morris was wanted on a San Patricio County, Texas warrant from June 2021
for the alleged Aggravated Sexual Assault on a known 14-year-old female
victim. Morris had gone on the run knowing that he was wanted. He was
located by the USMS New Orleans Task Force at a residence in the 3800
block of Dhemecourt New Orleans.

– The November 08, 2021, arrest
of James E. Muse who was wanted on a LA Parole Violations warrant for
not reporting to LA Probation and Parole for a considerable amount of
time. He was on parole for an Enticing Persons Under 17 into
Prostitution in Orleans Parish and there have been reoccurring
allegations reported to law enforcement of him being involved in sex
trafficking. Muse had been an Operation Boo Dat 2020 arrest related to
the alleged 2020 charges of Aggravated Battery of a teen using a
cigarette lighter and Simple Robbery.

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– The December 07, 2021,
arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Anthony Roberts on a Jefferson Parish
Sheriff’s Office felony Failure to Register as a Sex Offender warrant
from October of 2019. He had been featured by Crimestoppers GNO as a
part of their Boo Dat 2020 fugitive photo spread and was aware that he
was wanted. Roberts was originally convicted in 1997 of Attempted
Forcible Rape and must register for life. He received a 20 year LA DOC
sentence for the original conviction. He was located residing at an
apartment on Tabany Street in Metairie, Louisiana.

– The
December 22, 2021, arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Kuimar Stephens at a
residence in the 6900 block of Yorktown Dr. New Orleans as he tried to
flee out of a window. A small quantity of what is believed to be Ecstasy
was later seized off Stephens. He was wanted on an Orleans Parish
Criminal District Court warrant from August of 2020 for Failure to
Appear in Court on a pending felony Failure to Register as a Sex
Offender charge and had not updated his registration since at least
2020. Stephens was also wanted on a New Orleans Police Department
warrant from November of 2021 alleging that Kuimar Stephens was in
possession of a rifle on November 21st. This stems from a November 21st,
2021, shooting incident in the 3400 block of Pleasure Street where it is
alleged that person(s) shot at Stephens over one hundred times and an
AK-47 variant rifle was recovered by New Orleans Police Department at
the scene of the shooting.

During Operation Boo Dat over one hundred sex
offender compliance checks were also attempted or completed in Orleans
and Jefferson Parishes. Sex Offender compliance checks require law
enforcement officers to go to the sex offender’s reported address of
residence to verify that the person still lives at the provided address.
Often countless hours of follow up investigative work are required
during and after a compliance check.

Via the USMS Sex Offender
Investigations Branch (SOIB) funding was provided to pay for state and
local overtime work done during the operation related to both
enforcement and compliance checks.

Eastern District of Louisiana
U.S. Marshal Scott Illing stated, “with critical assistance from our
state and local partners along with Crimestoppers GNO we continue our
daily efforts to make the Eastern District of Louisiana safer. The
results of this operation were only accomplished via law enforcement
teamwork and USMS New Orleans Task Force along with our local, state,
and federal partners continue to support the Sex Offender Investigations
and Missing Child Unit missions of the USMS along with ongoing
investigations of violent felony offender fugitives across the Eastern
District of Louisiana. This work was accomplished during an interrupted
period shortly after the death of one of our area’s USMS Senior
Inspectors, Jared Keyworth, who died in a line of duty automobile
accident in Mississippi, and during post Hurricane Ida recovery and
continuing COVID-19 issues. We believe that Senior Inspector Keyworth
would be proud of the continuing work to reduce violent crime across the
nation and dedicate the results of Operation Boo Dat 2021 to his memory.

Any information can be provided to the U.S. Marshals Service at
(504) 589-6872 or via email at
usms.wanted@usdoj.gov
.  Crimestoppers GNO may also be contacted
with tips at (504) 822-1111.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found
at http://www.usmarshals.gov.

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America’s
First Federal Law Enforcement Agency

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