NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com [New Orleans, LA]
January 18, 2026
By Megan Wyatt
Ten lawsuits have been filed in Lake Charles’ 14th Judicial District Court against churches and schools in southwest Louisiana since the state’s “lookback window” law went into effect in 2021, allowing survivors of sexual abuse to file decades-old lawsuits.
The recent law change from the Louisiana Legislature opened the floodgates for childhood sexual abuse survivors to file civil suits that otherwise would have been barred through the state’s statute of limitations. Still, in some cases, survivors can no longer pursue criminal charges when the statute of limitations has lapsed or their alleged abuser has died.
The lookback window was initially set to expire in 2024, but state lawmakers extended the deadline to file lawsuits until June 14, 2027.
Not every clergy member named in a lawsuit previously appeared on a list of credibly accused clergy members the Diocese of Lake Charles released in 2019. The clergy members named in the lawsuits include:
- Rev. Michael Barras of St. Paul Catholic Church in Elton
- Rev. Mark Broussard of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Roman Catholic Church in Lake Charles
- Rev. James Burke of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Lake Charles
- Sister Thelma Dexheimer of Our Lady Immaculate School in Jennings
- Deacon Saunier of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Roman Catholic Church in Sulphur
- Rev. Herbert Schuster of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Lake Charles
- Rev. Charles Soileau of St. Joseph Church in Vinton
- A teacher named David of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Charles
Burke, Barras, Dexheimer, Soileau and Schuster have died. Broussard has been incarcerated since 2016 after being convicted of aggravated rape, among other child sexual abuse-related counts. The status of Saunier and the teacher named David are unclear.
Two of the lawsuits do not identify the accused clergy members by name.
One of the unnamed clergy members worked as a priest in Calcasieu Parish in 1993 when the alleged sexual abuse took place, according to court records. Another worked as a priest at Immaculate Conception Church in Jefferson Davis Parish in 1993 when the alleged abuse took place.
Kathryn Robb, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and an attorney who serves as national director of Enough Abuse, helped to write Louisiana’s lookback window law. She said such lawsuits send a warning message to institutions.
“Obviously, the justice piece really matters,” Robb said. “But when we open up revival windows, we effectively say to bad actors and institutions that look the other way or don’t have good training or policies or procedures, ‘Look, you’re going to be on the hook.’ The fear of liability is profound.”
Two priests formerly named by Diocese of Lake Charles
Of the identified clergy members accused in the lawsuits, Soileau and Broussard are the only ones who were also named in a list of credibly accused clergy that the Diocese of Lake Charles released in 2019 and updated in 2024.
In their list, the diocese said they received an allegation of abuse in 1999 against Soileau and removed him from ministry the same year. Soileau died in 2011.
The diocese said it received allegations of abuse in 1994 and 2009 against Broussard. He was removed from ministry in 1994, defrocked in 2013 and incarcerated in 2016 in cases involving two victims who were children.
He is currently serving two life sentences, plus 50 years, after a jury found him guilty of two counts of aggravated rape and one count each of molestation of a juvenile, aggravated oral sexual battery and oral sexual battery.
As the lawsuits play out in court, James Sudduth III, attorney for the Diocese of Lake Charles, has filed a number of exceptions in court to prevent them from proceeding. So far, those requests have been denied by 14th JDC judges.
In one lawsuit, which alleges that a teacher by the name of David sexually abused a 5-year-old student at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Lake Charles in 1996 and 1997, the venue changed to federal court because the victim now lives out-of-state.
Despite a previous ruling from the Louisiana Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the law, attorneys for the diocese in 2025 asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, saying it was filed after the legal deadline and the lookback window law was unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr. denied the motion, allowing the case to proceed.
The Louisiana Supreme Court initially ruled in 2024 that the lookback window law was unconstitutional, but the court reversed the decision later that year.
When reached by phone, Sudduth said the diocese cannot comment on active, pending litigation.
Allegations of forgery at-issue in one case
In the lawsuit against Soileau, diocese attorneys entered a 1999 agreement into evidence that said the victim would not pursue further action against the priest in exchange for $15,000. Fourteenth JDC Judge Michael Canaday ruled last November that signatures on the document were forged after hearing sworn statements by the victim and a witness whose name appeared on the document.
The lawsuit alleges that Soileau began abusing the victim, a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Joseph Church in Vinton, in 1990. Soileau allegedly asked for the victim to accompany him on a drive to Houston, Texas, with the priest saying he did not like to drive alone.
Soileau stopped at a motel during the trip where he sexually abused the victim, the lawsuit alleges. The abuse continued for approximately six years until the victim was 16, the lawsuit said.
In another case, the state’s highest court in December declined to hear arguments in a case accusing the diocese of negligent infliction of emotional distress involving Broussard. That case, which an appeals court has allowed to go forward, alleges Broussard groomed a 6-year-old boy by reading and discussing comic books with him in 1987 before eventually taking the child into his office and sexually abusing him a year later.
And another suit involving Schuster is set for a hearing Jan. 21 to consider a trial date. That lawsuit alleges Schuster sexually abused an altar boy beginning when he was 13 in 1966, telling the teen “This is what God wants.”
Allegations against nun, deacon surface in court filings
Two of the lawsuits include allegations that are less common in sexual abuse cases filed against the Catholic Church.
One lawsuit alleges that a Dexheimer, a nun, sexually abused a 7-year-old boy in her second-grade classroom at Our Lady Immaculate School in Jennings beginning in 1966.
The other lawsuit alleges that Saunier, a deacon at Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Sulphur, grabbed a 10-year-old girl while she volunteered to tidy the church chapel and rubbed himself against her clothes on three occasions in 1970. The victim in that case has died since filing the lawsuit.
In the cases involving Dexheimer and Saunier, diocese attorneys have filed motions to dismiss, but details are sparse in court records. Gil Dozier, attorney for the Diocese of Lafayette, is handling those cases because the abuse allegations predate the formation of the Diocese of Lake Charles in 1980. Dozier did not return calls for this story.
Dozens of similar legal proceedings across Louisiana are coming at a high cost to the Catholic Church.
Last December, a federal judge approved a $230 million settlement between the Archdiocese of New Orleans and hundreds of survivors of clergy sex abuse as part of a bankruptcy case that began in 2020.
In October, the Diocese of Alexandria filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“The public has to be educated on this,” Robb said. “No one wants to talk about it. It’s a tough topic, but because it’s such a serious topic, we are called upon to speak of it because if we don’t speak of it, it will continue.”