Pearl River Man Convicted of Indecent Behavior with a Juvenile
March 29, 2025
According to trial testimony, deputies with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office were dispatched in March, 2022, to a Pearl River residence in reference to a sexual abuse complaint. Upon arrival, deputies spoke to a woman who said her 8-year-old daughter had been touched inappropriately by her boyfriend, Lawrence Burt.
The complaint was forwarded to Detective Fishel for investigation. He arranged for the child to be taken to the Children’s Advocacy Center’s Hope House in Covington where the child was interviewed by forensic interviewer Cally Huggins. During the interview, the child said Burt would sneak into her bedroom during the night on multiple occasions and touch her inappropriately. The child said she tried to lock her bedroom door at night but Burt would “fuss” at her. She said she had been afraid to tell her mother what Burt was doing because she feared it would make him angry and he would kill her family. The girl’s mother was interviewed and she said Burt frequently stayed up during the night playing video games and watching pornography. She said he had tampered with the lock on her daughter’s bedroom door.
An arrest warrant was issued and detectives made repeated attempts to locate Burt. They discovered Burt abandoned his residence and abruptly quit his job. After intensive efforts and assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, Burt was located at a Slidell apartment complex and arrested. When questioned about the accusations against him, Burt said the victim was lying. He said anyone could make false allegations against him and he would be taken to jail because he is a convicted sex offender. When asked why he ran if he was innocent, he said he wasn’t running, he was just helping a friend move. Burt then admitted he saw the police at his residence when his friend drove him back to his house. He said they did not stop and that he knew there was a warrant for his arrest.
Sentencing for Burt is set in May, 2025. The penalty for Indecent behavior with a juvenile under the age of thirteen is imprisonment for two to twenty-five years. Burt has a prior conviction for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl when he was 31 years old. He also has a conviction for theft and two convictions for failing to register as a convicted sex offender.