Files Show How Golatt Was Able to Abuse Victims for Years While Holding Positions of Trust
By Billy Gunn
Angelo "Doogie" Deboray Golatt fooled a lot of people for a long time. Parents, his bosses, leaders of a Baptist church in Pineville, his wife. All were duped by his outward piety, his constant quoting of biblical scripture, his massive build, his charisma. The boys whom Golatt counseled as their spiritual adviser at Donahue Family Baptist Church were fooled, too, until he started raping them. Even after they discovered what he was, Golatt still held sway. By one victim's account, Golatt sexually molested him at least 50 times over four years, yet he remained silent. The victim, now a man, told a Rapides Parish sheriff's detective that the sexual encounters started when he was 12. "He was the kind of person that you would see jumping up and down in church praising God," he said, according to a transcribed interview in Golatt's criminal file. "He never threatened me, but he played some extremely, extremely complicated mind games." The Town Talk obtained the Golatt file following a public records request to the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office. The newspaper is not revealing the names of the victims or their families. Golatt, 29, pleaded guilty in March to four counts of forcible rape and was sentenced to four concurrent 40-year prison terms. He was indicted in May 2011 on charges of 13 sex crimes against children. Sheriff's detectives arrested Golatt in March 2010 on suspicion of committing 63 offenses. The district attorney's office prosecuted Golatt after four victims came forth, the first in March 2011. There undoubtably are many more, authorities say. "I hope whoever's out there who was a victim is able to deal with it," said Thomas "Rocky" Willson, an assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. Willson said the investigation was like peeling an onion: Every layer revealed evidence of more victims. There also were victims in Idaho, where Golatt lived with his new wife in 2006 and worked in a facility for the mentally retarded. "He was going after anyone he could find that was vulnerable," Willson said. Looking over the years a pattern emerges. Golatt held jobs that would put him in contact with and authority over kids or vulnerable adults: youth spiritual advisor in Pineville and in Buhl, Idaho; a worker who took care of the mentally retarded in Twin Falls, Idaho; a driver of an ice cream truck in Alexandria and Pineville. 'I was shocked' Golatt's crimes started to surface locally in March 2011 when the grandmother of a victim was in a car with the boy, who wanted to get something off his chest. He started talking about Golatt, who was called Doogie by everyone who knew him. "I was shocked," the grandmother told investigators. "I mean I almost couldn't speak because you're like not thinking, you're hearing what you just heard." The woman encouraged her grandson to tell his parents, who contacted police. The dominos started to fall for Golatt. Detectives and prosecutors built a case on the accounts of four boys. "You've got to admire those people who came forward because it took a lot of courage," Willson said. Even after the sexual abuse ended, Golatt kept in touch with the victims through texting or other communication. One victim said Golatt, who was worried about the investigation that began in March last year, texted him asking about its progress. Golatt also telephoned the father of one of the victims, assuring the dad that he would never hurt his boy. Arrested in Idaho In 2006 Golatt moved to Buhl, Idaho, with his new wife, Prissy, who is from Pineville. Before the year ended, Golatt was arrested for sexually abusing a resident at the Twin Falls branch of the Centers for Independent Living, where he was a developmental specialist. The resident, in his 20s at the time, is mildly retarded and has cerebral palsy. The victim told investigators that Golatt visited him and asked whether he had pornography. While watching a video, the victim said, Golatt pulled out his genitals and grabbed the victim's crotch. The victim told a case worker that "Angelo asked him to do oral sex on him but that (the victim) refused and that Angelo always brings up oral sex," according to records. Golatt, as he always did, explained away the encounter, passing it off as a misunderstanding between him and a retarded man. Jeanine Clayton, Golatt's boss at the independent living center, told investigators "that Angelo denied the allegations and said that he had used the bathroom at (the victim's) apartment and that the door had popped open," exposing Golatt's privates. Clayton also said that Golatt had on his work computer correspondence with a 16-year-old male in Louisiana. "... (Golatt) wrote that he missed (the teenager), couldn't wait to see him and wanted to kiss him all over," according to one of the Idaho reports. Though Golatt was charged in Idaho with exploitation of a vulnerable adult, and was suspected in the sexual abuse of another mentally challenged man, he pleaded to a misdemeanor and left Idaho at the beginning of 2007 after spending a month in jail. The victim and Jerome County sheriff's investigator Jocelyne Nunnally, who investigated Golatt's crimes there, flew into Alexandria in March to testify against Golatt, who pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial. Sting set at Louisiana College Golatt trolled for grown men, too. In January 2011, Louisiana College security Chief Dwayne Rogers set up a sting operation near Guinn Auditorium on campus after a student had received an unsolicited email from an unknown sender offering free sex videos. After at least one failed attempt to catch the emailer, and many text messages with an unknown cellphone, Rogers and other officers caught Golatt at the school after luring him with a proposed sexual rendezvous as bait. Golatt, a graduate in religious studies at LC in 2005, had noticed the student on a Facebook post and apparently became infatuated. Rogers' report stated Golatt and the student did not know each other. "Golatt advised that he had seen (the victim's) profile and email address on Facebook, and decided to contact him," Rogers wrote in an investigation approved by LC President Joe Aguillard. Golatt told Rogers that he had offered free porn to the student "as an attempt to get (the victim's) attention in hopes that a relationship, possibly sexual in nature, could be established," Rogers said. "Golatt went on to say that he has struggled with pornographic and homosexual tendencies for much of his adult life," Rogers said. Golatt was not prosecuted for the LC incident. He told Rogers that the attempt at sex was between two adult men. LC officials did ban Golatt from the campus. Plea day The Rev. Nathan Martin of Pineville became Golatt's spiritual adviser after he was arrested. Martin was in the courtroom when Golatt pleaded guilty to the four rape charges. Also in court were some of his victims, one of whom left as Golatt cited biblical scripture to Judge Thomas Yeager and everybody else in the room. "I didn't take offense but I understand why the victims would have," Martin said. "When the father spoke my heart was broken ..." The dad read a statement that said his family's faith was shattered and that his son would never be the same. Martin said he doesn't know where the Louisiana Department of Corrections had placed Golatt. "My prayer for him is that he can get through healing," Martin said. All four victims who came forth to police have moved away from the area, and Golatt's wife this year was granted a divorce.
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