A convicted sex offender who was briefly an Ascension Parish sheriff's deputy a decade ago pleaded not guilty to federal charges of enticing a minor and crimes against a minor tied to the alleged sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy out of the New Orleans area.
Todd Eric Tripp, 34, entered the initial plea Wednesday in Baton Rouge after U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Johnson read out the charges and informed Tripp that penalties with conviction could be as much as life in prison.
On May 10, a federal grand jury indicted Tripp on single counts of enticing a minor through the internet to engage in illegal sexual activity and of committing a felony offense involving a minor while already a registered sex offender.
The charges are among a group of federal laws commonly used to deter sex trafficking.
In a criminal complaint filed last month, federal prosecutors accused Tripp corresponding with the teen via social media under a false identity in 2020. They alleged Tripp began picking up the youth in Chalmette and taking him to hotels in the New Orleans area and to his trailer home in Sorrento where he sexually abused the teen.
Tripp has faced state criminal charges in Ascension over the same allegations. They are still pending.
At the time of the alleged abuse, between July 20, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2020, Tripp was out of prison and required to register as a sex offender after his October 2017 plea in Ascension Parish to attempted child pornography possession and indecent behavior with a juvenile.
His short career as an Ascension sheriff's correctional officer ended in 2013 after his arrest on child pornography and other counts.