The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lafayette in recent months has charged seven Acadiana residents, from Broussard to Basile, with child sexual exploitation, including enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and distribution of child porn.
A Broussard Middle School teacher, Christie Dunbar Oster, 38, of Broussard, was indicted April 30 on a charge of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity. She was arrested in January.
An eighth-grade teacher, she was named Teacher of the Year in 2025.
Oster is charged with having maintained a sexual relationship with a minor victim, one of her students, for most of 2024. The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges Oster used her cellphone to hold sexual discussions with the student and to instruct the student on deleting text messages to avoid detection.
Scott resident Luxe Arlen Thomas, 19, has been indicted in federal court on charges of producing and possession of child sexual abuse materials.
A former National Guardsman, he was charged with producing child porn, interstate transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity and other child sexual abuse materials-related crimes.
Thomas allegedly engaged in a monthslong pattern of abuse of a minor girl he understood to have intellectual challenges and to be in a foster system, according to the news release.
He allegedly traveled to another state to engage in “sexually explicit conduct” with the girl then transported her back to h to do the same, producing and possessing sexually explicit images as he did so.
Rickey James Hebert, 66, of Abbeville, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Lafayette on three charges: conspiracy to produce visual depictions involving the sexual exploitation of minors, attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and receipt of child pornography, according to the federal indictment.
The alleged criminal activity occurred on or about Nov. 30.
Hebert was allegedly paying a Filipina woman to create live videos of minor children being sexually abused and otherwise engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged in a news release.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges on April 30.
Donald W. Bergeron, 42, of Broussard, was indicted in April on three charges, including distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, court records show.
The indictment by a federal grand jury in Lafayette says Bergeron from around April 11 through Dec. 19, 2021, used social media messaging applications and cloud-based file storage services to send, receive and save images of child sexual abuse, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.
Bergeron allegedly has a prior conviction for incest with a child.
Scott Nicholas Martel, 36, of Basile, was indicted in March for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
The indictment alleges that on or about Jan. 31, Martel falsely portrayed himself online as having access to minors by using online names such as “BaileyMomof2daughters” to secure child sexual abuse materials from others in internet-based chat rooms, the news release states.
A February search of his phone, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, revealed child sex abuse materials he received in this way plus AI-generated pornographic materials involving Martel’s use of photos obtained online of minor children living in his area.
Carencro resident Cody Allen Bell, 34, was indicted April 30 on charges of receipt and possession of child porn.
According to the indictment, the alleged incidents occurred from around February 2021 until about May 31, 2022.
A tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by an encrypted messaged application led to the investigation. The tip advised that someone attempted to upload child sexual abuse materials to the messaging applications.
The NCMEC sent the tip to the h Bureau of Investigations where detectives identified the suspect as Bell, the release states. Detectives found materials on Bell’s messaging account, cloud-based storage account and cellphone.
Opelousas resident Michael “White Mike” Roy Williams, 61, was indicted April 30 by a federal grand jury in Lafayette in two separate cases, one charging him with possessing child sexual abuse materials and the other charging him with possessing an explosive device, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The investigation started with the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office receiving information that Williams possessed child pornography. Detectives obtained a search warrant for his smartphone and another search warrant for his home where they allegedly found an explosive device.