Fall Operation Boo Dat 2021 Recovers Five Missing/Endangered Teens and Makes Thirty Arrests Across New Orleans Metro Area

New Orleans, LA – The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) New Orleans Task Force (USMS Eastern District of Louisiana) sponsored its annual Operation Boo Dat 2021 from mid-October to December 24, 2021. The partnership between New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO), Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO), Louisiana State Police (LSP), and U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force resulted in thirty (30) arrests with seventeen (17) of the arrests being for felony sex offender registration violations. Five (5) missing/endangered teenagers were also recovered during the operation. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office (TPSO), U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) New Orleans Field Office, LA Department of Child and Family Services (LA DCFS), LA Probation and Parole (LA P and P), Washington Parish Sheriff's Office, St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office, and Crimestoppers GNO also provided support during the operation.

Highlights of Operation Boo Dat 2021 included:

• The recoveries of five missing/endangered teens with one being a 16-year-old female JPSO runaway who left her residence in Marrero (Jefferson Parish) by allegedly stealing a relative’s vehicle and a handgun. That teen, who was known to have ties to Bourbon Street and the Chef Highway area of New Orleans, was recovered at a residence in the 7900 block of Benson Street New Orleans, LA and was located living with several adults to include an adult female strip club dancer. While not included in the three recoveries, a 17-year-old female who had been missing/runaway for some time was arrested in Hammond, LA on a Tangipahoa Parish felony warrant for Human Trafficking. That female was also wanted on a warrant out of Natchez, Mississippi for stealing a vehicle. She is known to have prior ties to several female runaways from New Orleans as well as ties to organized gang activities. The second recovery involved a 14-year-old female with possible sex trafficking ties being recovered at a motel off Read Blvd. in New Orleans East. She was located along with a 17-year-old female and a 15-year-old female staying in a motel room. The room smelled of Marijuana and alcohol. The girls advised that before moving to that room they were in another motel room with adult males from Baton Rouge, LA who left/stranded them to return to Baton Rouge, LA due to the adult men’s cousin being shot. A third recovery was the result of a collateral lead request from USMS Middle District of Louisiana to attempt to locate a 15-year-old runaway female for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. That teen had prior human sex trafficking issues in Baton Rouge, but her pimp had recently been murdered. She was located living with her 17-year-old boyfriend and one of his relatives at an apartment in the 12100 block of North I-10 Service Road New Orleans, LA. Information was also developed that the female was regularly leaving the apartment to meet with adult males in New Orleans East. The case is also possibly associated with an armed robbery that occurred in the same area. The fourth and fifth recoveries were of two sisters ages 15 and 16 with one missing out of St. Tammany Parish, LA and the younger sister missing out of Baton Rouge, LA. Both females may be victims of adult(s) felony criminal sexual activities and they were recovered at an apartment in Baton Rouge with critical support from U.S. Marshals Service Middle District of Louisiana and Baton Rouge Police Department.
• The early morning December 10, 2021, arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Lorenzo Oliver on a December 2021 felony warrant from the New Orleans Police Department related to the alleged First-Degree Rape of a 12-year-old female victim in an abandoned residence on the West Bank of New Orleans. Oliver, who had been featured in local media in 2013 for an arrest that involved him following an adult female into the bathroom of the Westwego, LA library and attempting to rape her, was convicted in 2015 of Attempted Forcible Rape and Sexual Battery in Jefferson Parish and must register as a sex offender for life.
• The October 19, 2021, federal arrest of a sex offender for the alleged Failure to Report International Travel to Ethiopia to the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office as required by Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). His original 2004 Pierce County, Washington conviction was for Molestation in the Second Degree (2 Counts) involving a 12-year-old female with molestation allegations dating back several years prior. He was located and arrested in Gonzales, LA and the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.
• The October 25, 2021, arrest of sex offender James Sorrell at a local homeless shelter in New Orleans where he was found to be staying under a false name. Sorrell was wanted on a Texas Department of Corrections Parole warrant from November of 2019 based on a prior Failure to Register as a Sex Offender conviction and he also had active Austin, Texas PD and Dane County, Wisconsin warrants for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender. His original 1987 conviction in Idaho involved a 7-year-old female victim.
• The October 26, 2021, arrest of sex offender David Douglas Smith who was wanted out of Jackson County, Mississippi on a Failure to Register as a Sex Offender warrant from June of 2019. His original 1996 East Baton Rouge Parish conviction was for Molestation of a Juvenile (9-year-old female). He was found in the Hammond, LA area in late October 2021 based on a collateral lead from USMS Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force (Southern Mississippi U.S. Marshals Service Office) Smith had been living in Tangipahoa Parish for over two years without Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act compliance.
• The October 29, 2021, arrest of Lamonte Versill Morris on a collateral lead request from U.S. Marshals Service Southern Texas Corpus Christi Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force. Morris was wanted on a San Patricio County, Texas warrant from June 2021 for the alleged Aggravated Sexual Assault on a known 14-year-old female victim. Morris had gone on the run knowing that he was wanted. He was located by the U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force at a residence in the 3800 block of Dhemecourt New Orleans.
• The November 08, 2021, arrest of James E. Muse who was wanted on a LA Parole Violations warrant for not reporting to LA Probation and Parole for a considerable amount of time. He was on parole for an Enticing Persons Under 17 into Prostitution in Orleans Parish and there have been reoccurring allegations reported to law enforcement of him being involved in sex trafficking. Muse had been an Operation Boo Dat 2020 arrest related to the alleged 2020 charges of Aggravated Battery of a teen using a cigarette lighter and Simple Robbery.
• The December 07, 2021, arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Anthony Roberts on a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office felony Failure to Register as a Sex Offender warrant from October of 2019. He had been featured by Crimestoppers GNO as a part of their Boo Dat 2020 fugitive photo spread and was aware that he was wanted. Roberts was originally convicted in 1997 of Attempted Forcible Rape and must register for life. He received a 20 year LA DOC sentence for the original conviction. He was located residing at an apartment on Tabany Street in Metairie, Louisiana.
• The December 22, 2021, arrest of Tier 3 Sex Offender Kuimar Stephens at a residence in the 6900 block of Yorktown Dr. New Orleans as he tried to flee out of a window. A small quantity of what is believed to be Ecstasy was later seized off Stephens. He was wanted on an Orleans Parish Criminal District Court warrant from August of 2020 for Failure to Appear in Court on a pending felony Failure to Register as a Sex Offender charge and had not updated his registration since at least 2020. Stephens was also wanted on a New Orleans Police Department warrant from November of 2021 alleging that Kuimar Stephens was in possession of a rifle on November 21st. This stems from a November 21st, 2021, shooting incident in the 3400 block of Pleasure Street where it is alleged that person(s) shot at Stephens over one hundred times and an AK-47 variant rifle was recovered by New Orleans Police Department at the scene of the shooting.

During Operation Boo Dat over one hundred sex offender compliance checks were also attempted or completed in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. Sex Offender compliance checks require law enforcement officers to go to the sex offender’s reported address of residence to verify that the person still lives at the provided address. Often countless hours of follow up investigative work are required during and after a compliance check.

Via the U.S. Marshals Service Sex Offender Investigations Branch (SOIB) funding was provided to pay for state and local overtime work done during the operation related to both enforcement and compliance checks.

Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Marshal Scott Illing stated, "with critical assistance from our state and local partners along with Crimestoppers GNO we continue our daily efforts to make the Eastern District of Louisiana safer. The results of this operation were only accomplished via law enforcement teamwork and U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force along with our local, state, and federal partners continue to support the Sex Offender Investigations and Missing Child Unit missions of the U.S. Marshals Service along with ongoing investigations of violent felony offender fugitives across the Eastern District of Louisiana. This work was accomplished during an interrupted period shortly after the death of one of our area's U.S. Marshals Service Senior Inspectors, Jared Keyworth, who died in a line of duty automobile accident in Mississippi, and during post Hurricane Ida recovery and continuing COVID-19 issues. We believe that Senior Inspector Keyworth would be proud of the continuing work to reduce violent crime across the nation and dedicate the results of Operation Boo Dat 2021 to his memory.

Any information can be provided to the U.S. Marshals Service at (504) 589-6872 or via email at usms.wanted@usdoj.gov. Crimestoppers GNO may also be contacted with tips at (504) 822-1111.