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NATCHITOCHES, LA (KTBS) — The police chief of a small Natchitoches Parish village has been arrested following child abuse allegations surfacing over the weekend through videos shared on social media.
Natchitoches Parish sheriff’s deputies charged Joseph C. Hines, 47, of Goldonna with cruelty to a juvenile. No bond is set.
Hines is the elected police chief of Goldonna. He is two years into his first term, according to the Secretary of State website.
The sheriff’s office began an investigation after the two Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services investigators asked for a deputy to accompany them to a home to look into a complaint received on a hotline. Following the home visit, the DCFS personnel told the deputies that based on their investigation there was no evidence of abuse so a decision was made not to remove the child at that time, Sheriff Stuart Wright said Monday in a news release.
Videos that include the female juvenile have been circulated on social media despite state laws that make it a crime to do so.
The sheriff’s office received its own complaint from an anonymous source later on Friday and began its own investigation. Natchitoches sheriff’s detectives reviewed the video for authenticity, interviewed witnesses, obtained records that are not available to the public and interviewed the minor child, Wright said.
As a result, NPSO Criminal Investigations Division on Sunday obtained a warrant from the 10th Judicial Court for the arrest of Hines.
Monday afternoon, DCFS case workers removed the juvenile from the home, Wright said, and NPSO detectives are in the process searching the house for any additional clues or evidence in the investigation.
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