I-TEAM: BRPD responds to new allegations of child sexual assault in Brave Cave

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The Baton Rouge Police Department is responding one day after the WAFB I-TEAM exposed new allegations that an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted last summer when he was taken to the Brave Cave, a secretive facility where certain people in BRPD custody claim they were beaten and illegally strip searched. According to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, February 20, 2024, the child, along with his mother and two teenage brothers, were taken to the now closed facility back in June following an early-morning raid at their home on Aster Street in Baton Rouge.

While inside the Brave Cave, the attorney alleges the entire family was separated and forced to strip naked and undergo a body cavity search. At one point, Thompson says one of the boys claims a high-ranking officer knocked him unconscious.

“According to the victim, the 15-year-old and his mother, that 15-year-old was taken to a secluded place by that Lt. who closed the doors and he was knocked unconscious,” said Thompson.

Thompson not only alleges in the federal lawsuit that the mother was strip searched by a male officer but he says the 11-year-old told forensic interviewers he was sexually assaulted while inside the Brave Cave.

“I won’t go into too much detail and I don’t want to get too explicit but the allegation is that a sexual assault occurred,” said Thompson. “There was a strip search that was performed and there was a body cavity search that was performed as well and one of the allegations is that his private parts were touched and or held.”

The family has also filed a restraining order against the officer accused of inappropriately touching the 11-year-old boy.

When the WAFB I-TEAM reached out to BRPD about the allegations earlier this week, a spokesman for the agency said that because an Internal Affairs complaint had been filed, they were investigating the matter. That spokesman did not respond to specific allegations in the federal lawsuit.

BRPD released the following statement Wednesday, February 21, 2024.

These are not the first troubling allegations that have come out of the infamous Brave Cave that the department and the FBI are now investigating. The facility was permanently closed back in August after the WAFB I-TEAM first exposed beatings and illegal strip searches that were allegedly carried out there.

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