A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday night (Sept. 24) found Dawn Barriere guilty as charged of possessing pornographic videos depicting children under age 13.
Barriere, 24, formerly of Metairie, was a preschool teacher’s assistant at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Cottage program in Uptown New Orleans when she was arrested in October 2023.
The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Unit opened its investigation in August 2023 after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The report stated that pornographic videos involving prepubescent girls being sexually abuse were uploaded to Dropbox, a commercial file hosting service. Dropbox flagged the suspect videos in April 2023. Evidence showed that Barriere created the Dropbox account in 2015 and uploaded the illegal materials. Child pornography had been uploaded to that Dropbox account as long as six years prior to April 2023. She was arrested at her apartment in Metairie on Oct. 9, 2023.
During her interview with a state agent, Barriere admitted she had periodically viewed child pornography and was sexually aroused by it, but she felt “disgusted” afterward. She told the agent that she had viewed child pornography as recent as a month before her arrest.
However, at trial, Barriere denied the charge. She testified that as a teenager, she engaged in video chats with a man she knew as “Nate.” She described him as “an old, chunky white guy with very thin glasses and balding,” who began sending her stories about child sex abuse, leading her to sexually abuse a 2-year-old at the man’s request. She testified that “Nate” instructed her to set up the Dropbox account and she provided him with the password to it so he could share child pornography with her. She said she acted out of fear the man would find and harm her. She said she never sought out child porn and masturbated while viewing the illegal videos “only when I was instructed to.”
She never mentioned “Nate” to the state agent during the interview because the agent never asked, she testified.
Barriere had hundreds of photographs of children at the Uptown school, but none were sexual in nature. None of these images were related to the charge for which Barriere was prosecuted. The Cottage program is designed for children ages 1, 2 and 3. After her arrest, parents withdrew about 25 students from the school, according to trial testimony.
Jurors deliberated about 2 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdict. Judge E. Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing for Oct. 28.
Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.