A former Crowley resident and convicted sex offender has been arrested in Chambers County, Texas, for allegedly molesting a juvenile in Acadia Parish.
Lance Barton, 56, was arrested yesterday by the U.S. Marshal’s Office and local sheriff’s deputies.
Maxine Trahan, a spokesperson for the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office, says Barton is currently awaiting extradition to Crowley at the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office.
Barton has been wanted by Acadia Parish Sheriff’s deputies since June, after authorities obtained a warrant to arrest him for Molestation of a female juvenile.
Sheriff Wayne Melancon says Lance Barton was originally arrested for sex offenses in Acadia Parish in November of 2005, where he remained in jail for five years.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on December 15, 2010.
Barton was transferred to the Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, LA, two months later.
His sentence was overturned on February 2, 2013, and he was taken back to the Acadia Parish Jail.
Melancon says Barton appeared in District Court before Judge Edward Rubin, in October 2013, for 4 counts of Molestation of a Juvenile; 2 counts of Oral Sexual Battery & Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.
Barton withdrew his previous plea of Not Guilty and plead No Contest to the Molestation of a Juvenile charge, according to court documents.
Sheriff Melancon explains the court then ordered Barton to serve, “a term of seven and one-half years at Hard Labor (for each charge) with the Louisiana Department of Correction, which was to run concurrent with each other and any other sentence he was presently serving.”
He was also instructed he had to register and as a sex offender and report for the rest of his life.
Barton was given credit for time previously served and released on December 6, 2013, as a Convicted Sex Offender Tier 3.
