Jury Finds 81-year-old Slidell Man Guilty in Sexual Assault Trial
June 16, 2025
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on June 11, 2025, a St. Tammany Parish jury needed only 25 minutes of deliberations before finding 81-year-old Richard James Nyberg of Slidell guilty of sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Assistant District Attorneys Gary Tromblay and Iain Dover presented the case to the jury over the course of a two-day trial with Judge Tara Zeller presiding. Detective Matthew Bauer with the Slidell Police Department led the investigation.
According to testimony from the trial, the Slidell Police Department received a complaint on August 1, 2024, that Nyberg had sexually abused a six-year-old girl. The victim and her grandmother were temporarily living at Nyberg’s house in Slidell. When officers arrived at the residence, the victim’s grandmother reported that Nyberg had sexually assaulted the child earlier that morning while the child was asleep. The grandmother told the officers a hidden camera recorded the incident. She said she had placed the camera in the room so that she could monitor her granddaughter. The police viewed the video and confirmed it showed Nyberg sexually abusing the child. The camera recorded Nyberg entering the room at 6:30 a.m. The room was dark and Nyberg used his cell phone as a flashlight. Nyberg knew the grandmother had previously placed a camera in the room and he immediately searched for it with the phone light, but he did not find it. The victim’s grandmother had moved it and concealed it because during the early morning of the previous day, the camera captured Nyberg in the child’s room for no legitimate reason. Thinking that there was no camera in the room and that he was clear to do as he desired, Nyberg approached the child as she slept on her back. He leaned over the child and sexually touched her—using the light on his cell phone to illuminate the offense. When the child stirred, Nyberg ceased touching her and backed away. After viewing the video, officers arrested Nyberg. As he was arrested, Nyberg told the child’s grandmother that she would regret having him arrested.
At the conclusion of the trial, prosecutor Iain Dover told the jury Nyberg took sexual advantage of a child who lovingly called him “Paw Paw,” adding, “He betrayed a child who trusted and loved him.” Nyberg maintained that he did nothing criminal and blamed the victim’s grandmother for his ordeal—claiming the child’s grandmother lied and set him up because he was going to evict her. However, ADA Gary Tromblay reminded the jury that the child’s grandmother gained nothing, and in fact lost everything, for reporting Nyberg to the police, and that falsely blaming her for his legal troubles could not erase his guilt. Tromblay stated, “No matter how much the defendant complains about the child’s grandmother, the video clearly shows the defendant creeping into a dark room with a flashlight and sexually assaulting a little girl while she slept. He only blames her grandmother because he can’t blame the camera.”
Judge Zeller set Nyberg’s sentencing for July 8, 2025. Sexual battery of a child under the age of 13 carries a sentence of 25 to 99 years in prison. Indecent behavior with a juvenile under the age of 13 carries a sentence of 2 to 25 years in prison.