“He’s threatened me multiple times, saying he has connections in the justice system, so I better be careful, and he can take her away anytime he wants to. I didn’t believe him until it happened.”
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office never acted on the complaint.
“It was never assigned to a detective, and nothing was ever investigated,” Abelseth said.
Barnes has admitted he’s the biological father of the child. Mysteriously those court records are now under seal and cannot be seen by the public.
‘It’s a lie. She was in a bar with a fake ID, telling everyone she was a college student.
‘I had no idea she was 16, and I didn’t rape her. That is absolutely, unequivocally false,’ he says.
Louisiana has statutory rape laws which apply if the victim is under 17, regardless of whether or not they physically consented.
Barnes claims that he only found out about the child when she was 5 years old. And although this may be true, there is no record that he paid the back child support that is standard in most cases.
Ordered to pay rapist child support
In April 2021 the teenager accused her father of hitting her in the face when fighting over her cell phone. He denies he ever hit her.
