FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Former Bogalusa Firefighter Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison After Guilty Plea to Charges Relating to Sexual Assault of St. Tammany Parish Nursing Home Resident
June 30, 2024
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on June 25, 2024, former Bogalusa firefighter Brandon Applewhite, age 39, pleaded guilty in St. Tammany Parish to one count of Sexual Battery of a victim with a physical or mental disability and one count of Molestation of a victim with a physical or mental disability in a case filed against him by the District Attorney’s Office in February of 2022. During the course of an unrelated investigation by authorities outside of St. Tammany Parish, a cellular phone was seized from Brandon Applewhite. Forensic analysis of Applewhite’s phone revealed it contained nude images of an elderly woman being touched inappropriately. The phone also contained text messages between Applewhite and an employee of a St. Tammany Parish nursing home during which the employee agreed to send him the illicit photographs of the woman who was identified as a resident at the nursing home. Judge Scott Gardner sentenced Applewhite on each count to thirty (30) years in prison without benefit of parole. Judge Gardner ordered the sentences to run concurrently with each other. Following the completion of his prison term, Applewhite will be required to register as a convicted sex offender for the remainder of his life. Executive Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Authement was in charge of the prosecution.