Attorney asks First Circuit to delay Dennis Perkins trial

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The lawyer for Dennis Perkins filed documents Tuesday, asking a higher court to postpone next week’s scheduled start of his client’s high-profile trial in Livingston Parish.

Prosecutors have objected, saying the trial date has been set for almost a year and should go on as scheduled.

Perkins, a former high-ranking Livingston Parish Sheriff’s deputy, is accused of multiple charges including rape and producing child pornography. His former school teacher wife, Cynthia, is also charged in the case and is set to be tried separately at a later date.

Jury selection in his case is set to start Monday, July 12. However, attorney Jarrett Ambeau, who represents Dennis Perkins, says he is scheduled to represent another client in a death penalty case in East Feliciana Parish on that same date.

“It is not possible to conduct both of these jury trials at the same time,” Ambeau wrote in his Request for Expedited Consideration filed with the First Circuit Tuesday.

Last month, District Judge Erika Sledge, the presiding judge in the Perkins case, denied Ambeau’s request to postpone the Perkins trial. Ambeau is asking the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal to overturn her decision.

Prosecutors have asked that the trial date remain as is, noting that the Perkins case has been scheduled for almost a year. Prosecutors say Ambeau only joined the East Feliciana Parish case as counsel of record in March 2021.

In noting their objection to changing the date of the Perkins trial, prosecutors wrote that “Mr. Ambeau has had ample opportunity to prepare for – and plan around – the trial date of July 12, 2021. This honorable court took special effort to set aside the trial date of July 12, 2021 for a two-week window almost a full year ago and directed all parties to plan around this date,” prosecutors said in their opposition motion.

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