FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2023
Slidell Man Found Guilty of Failure to Properly Register as a Convicted Sex Offender and Two Counts of Resisting Police with Force or Violence
COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery reports that on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, Ernest Day, 38, of Slidell, Louisiana, was found guilty of two counts of failure to properly register as a convicted sex offender and two counts of resisting police officers with force or violence. District Judge Scott Gardner presided over the case. The defendant has 6 prior felony convictions and will be sentenced on August 29, 2023, by District Judge Scott Gardner who presided over the trial.
The defendant is a convicted sex offender, having pled guilty in Florida to committing a lewd and & lascivious battery of a child. Upon his relocation to Louisiana, Louisiana law necessitated his registration in this state as well as ongoing recertification with the St. Tammany Parish Sex Offender Registry, and to complete community notification requirements.
The defendant was charged in this case with failing to comply with his annual registration in February 2022 and for failing to complete his community notifications in December of 2022. When two officers attempted to arrest him, the defendant forcibly resisted the officers.
During the trial, the officers testified and the officers’ body-worn camera footage was played for the jury. The camera footage captured the defendant running from the officers, him physically resisting the officers for almost 12 minutes and him grabbing an officer’s taser. One of the officers involved had to be taken to a local hospital for medical treatment.
The defendant testified on his own behalf and said that he didn’t “intend” on breaking the law and that he didn’t think he should have been arrested. During closing arguments at the conclusion of the trial, Assistant District Attorney Christina Fisher told the jury that “ignorance of the law is not a defense,” and that “the law is not subjective.” The attorney for the defendant asked the jury to consider his “hard life” and that the State “has a black and white view of justice but there are shades of gray.” He told the jury that the “system” was unjust. Assistant District Attorney Blake Peters told the jury that “everyone, including Day, must follow the law that is on the books – nothing more and nothing less.” Assistant District Attorneys Blake Peters and Christina Fisher prosecuted the case.