ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — St. Tammany Parish government officials are speaking out about an exclusive WWL Louisiana investigation that uncovered decades-old child sexual assault charges against the coroner-elect, Dr. Christopher Tape.
“We are asking Dr. Tape to resign from his position as incoming coroner. Otherwise, we, as the parish legislative delegation, would support a recall petition to protect the people and the families we serve,” said Legislators from the Northshore Legislative Delegation in a joint statement.
The investigation found Tape was arrested on six counts of child sexual assault in 2001 but the indictment was later quashed because New Mexico prosecutors took 14 months to formally charge him and the court found they violated Tape’s right to a speedy trial.
Tape is scheduled to take over for the current coroner, Dr. Chuck Preston, on Mar. 25. At that time, Tape will take charge of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program for the parish and will serve as the lead official for all sexual assault responses in a five-parish area.
In an interview with WWL, Tape said his experience being accused of child sexual assault would make him a good person to lead sexual assault response “because I know what a false accusation is like.”
Tape ran unopposed for the open seat and never had to campaign. He has only lived in St. Tammany Parish for about a year, and other elected officials there said they were caught off guard by this weekend’s report on WWL.
Court records show Tape admitted to Albuquerque police that he spanked and then rubbed the bare bottom of his girlfriend’s 7-year-old daughter with her pants and panties down. The girl accused Tape of making her pose in suggestive positions while he whipped her, and a police detective testified that Tape kept a trove of pornographic material in a locked shed showing young women being spanked and posing in the “the same type of positions that (the alleged victim) had been put in."
In a telephone interview with WWL, Tape said he was disciplining the girl in place of her mother and denied any molestation. He also said the pornography collected by police, including “Barely Legal” and “Kane” magazines and videos, were “legal, adult pornography that was in my locked shed that was brought out without any warrant.”
The criminal indictment was later quashed after a New Mexico court found the state violated Tape’s right to a speedy trial by causing a 14-month delay between arresting Tape and formally charging him.
More recent court records in Lafayette Parish also show Tape paid an undisclosed civil settlement in 2022 to a young woman who worked for him at the private autopsy firm he ran there after she accused him of unwanted advances.
“We collectively share serious concerns about a story appearing on local television news detailing previous child assault charges against Dr. Tape in the state of New Mexico,” said members of the Legislation delegation. “We believe there is a reasonable and rightful expectation among voters that our public leaders possess unquestionable character and sound judgment as a way to instill trust within the community. An elected official who has six unresolved charges of child sexual abuse violates that trust; especially an official serving as coroner investigating sexual assault.”
St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper and Parish Council Chairman Arthur Laughlin also said in a joint statement, “We, like our citizens, are deeply concerned about the recent news headlines involving the coroner-elect.”
But the two government leaders acknowledge they have no power to prevent Tape from taking office. In fact, the parish has no authority over the coroner’s office at all, and disputes with the current coroner have led to efforts to restore parish control over the agency and its finances.
In their joint statement Wednesday, Cooper and Laughlin said that while they have no jurisdiction over the coroner’s office, “transparency remains one of the pillars of good government, and we encourage the disclosure of relevant findings by any agencies involved.”
Tape said he has always disclosed his history of criminal charges to state medical licensing boards, including the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners. But the board declined to release his application and other documents, which are exempt from the state’s public records law.
St. Tammany Parish spokesman Michael Vinsanau said if the board has documents that are “a matter of public safety and public interest, we encourage them to release them.”
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