Ex-Lafayette Jeff choir director gets prison time for child seduction, sexual battery
Judge sentences Ja’Shon Burks to five years in prison, two years on probation for pattern of grooming and assaulting eight girls in Lafayette Jeff’s chorale program
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EX-LAFAYETTE JEFF CHOIR DIRECTOR GETS PRISON TIME FOR CHILD SEDUCTION, SEXUAL BATTERY
Ja’Shon Burks, a former Lafayette Jefferson High School choir director, turned to a courtroom full of former students and their families Friday afternoon and said he was sorry for what he called “stupid” and “naïve” actions that led to his conviction on 13 felony counts related to allegations of inappropriate contact with girls in competitive chorale groups he directed.
“I broke that trust,” Burks said. “I made a mistake. … I’m no monster.”
Judge Steve Meyer, Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 judge, said Burks did more than make a mistake. Instead, Meyer told Burks that he’d shown a pattern of using his position over three years to groom and assault the eight girls named in the charges. Meyer said Burks preyed on the girls’ desire to perform in featured roles in Lafayette Jeff’s vaunted choirs.
“You took that and turned it into something for your own selfish needs,” Meyer told Burks. “You had a paramount obligation to do no harm. What did you do instead? You molested them. … You put your hands down their pants.”
Meyer sentenced Burks to five years in prison and another two years on supervised probation after he’s released. The prosecution and defense had agreed at the beginning of a 2½-hour hearing Friday that seven years was the maximum sentence after Burks was convicted by a jury in November on 11 felony counts of child seduction and two felony counts of sexual battery.
Burks told the judge he plans to appeal the conviction and asked for a public defender.
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