Louisiana Teacher Pleads Guilty To Giving Students Cupcakes Laced With Cop Husband's Sperm
She's facing several charges of child sex crimes.
Livingston County Sheriff's Office A middle school teacher in Louisiana is facing a prison sentence of 41 years after pleading guilty to several counts of sex crimes committed against children.
Cynthia Perkins, 39, was arrested alongside her ex-husband, Dennis Perkins in October 2019, and charged with 150 felonies, including rape, child pornography, sexual battery of a child, and video voyeurism.
On Monday, Cynthia accepted a plea deal, which occurred hours before jury selection was set to begin for her trial, which resulted in the dismissal of 68 charges and an agreement to testify against her ex-husband, who is a former Livingston Parish Sheriff's Lieutenant.
Cynthia Perkins's crimes include allegedly giving students cupcakes containing Dennis Perkins's sperm.
The former teacher at Westside Junior High School initially maintained her innocence against the charges, alleging that Dennis, whom she divorced in the wake of the arrests, manipulated her into committing the crimes.
However, she later confessed to making child pornography, second-degree rape, and mingling harmful substances, which reportedly consisted of Cynthia mixing Dennis's sperm to "season" baked goods, giving them to the middle school students.
Prosecutors on the case told the Livingston Parish News that they had received "the blessing" from the juvenile victim's family to accept the plea deal, saying, "knowing it's 40 years is ... a pretty long time in prison," adding that the three charges Cynthia pleaded guilty to "were representative of what she had done."
Dennis, who had been promptly fired from the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office following his arrest, where he worked since 2002 and was head of the SWAT Team, was indicted on 78 felony counts.
Cynthia, who had resigned from her job at Westside Junior High School following her arrest, taught English Language Arts at the middle school since 2016, prior to that, she worked at North Live Oak Elementary and Live Oak Middle School for four years.
Cynthia and Dennis Perkins were first arrested in 2019.
In October 2019, the couple were arrested after authorities found a photo of the pair naked with a minor after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Cynthia's lawyer, James Spokes, called her agreement to take the plea deal, "the best possible outcome," adding that "we weighed all the options and available information, and considering the circumstances… we really feel as though this was the best decision."
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She will also testify in Dennis's upcoming trial, which is set to being in May 2022, a testimony the prosecution feels will be extremely helpful to their case.
The former couple are also facing a slew of lawsuits pertaining to feeding cupcakes filled with Dennis's sperm to Cynthia's class on two separate occasions in 2018 and 2019.
One of the complaints alleges that the father of a student who ate the baked good has fallen into a debilitating depression over the incident, while another lawsuit claims that a student and their parent have been afflicted by mental health and behavioral problems, and have not been able to sleep since the cupcakes incident.
In a separate lawsuit filed last May, a parent of one of the middle school student's alleged that Cynthia had showed the underage girl inappropriate pictures, and that she also videotaped and photographed the minor.
All of the lawsuit that have been filed are accusing the Livingston School Board of negligence.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.