Judge denies bond, again, in Mack case

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A judge has, for the second time, denied bond in the case of a 75-year-old Livingston parish man charged with first-degree rape and sexual battery.

Law enforcement officials say the case involves a minor female.

John Mack, 75, was booked into the Livingston Parish Jail on October 14, 2021. At the time, 21st Judicial District Court Judge Charlotte Foster ordered him held without bail.

Mack’s attorney, Robert Gill, filed a motion last month asking that a bond be considered in the case.

Gill Wednesday asked the judge to consider a $300,000 bond and ankle monitoring for Mack.

However, prosecutor Daniel Smart with the Attorney General’s office urged the judge to continue holding Mack without bond.

During a bond hearing this morning, Foster again denied bail in the case, saying the allegations against Mack have not changed and neither has her decision about bond.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux recently said his office was passing the case along to the Louisiana Attorney General to prosecute because of the “politically sensitive nature of the case.”

Mack is related to a state representative from the area as well as a Livingston parish councilman. However, both of those politicians claim they have not had contact with Mack in more than a decade.

A guardian for the female in the case alleges the girl had been abused since the age of 6. She is now a teenager.

The NAACP recently got involved in the case, accusing law enforcement and government agencies tasked with protecting child abuse victims of dropping the ball in this case.

Baton Rouge NAACP President Eugene Collins said he got involved after the guardian told him of the many roadblocks she had encountered in trying to get the case properly investigated. Collins said the case only gained traction after he urged the guardian to report the alleged abuse to the Governor’s Office of Human Trafficking.

“We need to know why these complaints were overlooked for so long,” Collins said earlier this week.

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2021 WAFB. All rights reserved.