A former child sexual abuse crimes detective who for years has been incarcerated on and off after admitting that he molested minors during his Louisiana policing career – and has been investigated as a possible serial killer – is back behind bars again.
Stanley Burkhardt, 74, was jailed in New Orleans on 15 July on allegations that he illegally used social media in 2019 to leave suggestive comments under young men’s pictures, according to court records reviewed by WWL Louisiana reporting partner the Guardian on Tuesday.
Those charges essentially stem from a case that was left unresolved when he underwent intensive therapy in a federal prison in North Carolina for people legally considered sexually dangerous, a course from which he was released with conditions in August 2024. In May, state prosecutors in New Orleans filed a document known as a bill of information that basically reinitiated the unsettled case from roughly six years earlier, setting the stage for his latest return to custody.
Burkhardt had been working as a clerk at a Robért Fresh Market store in New Orleans. He is no longer employed there after being jailed again and is temporarily being held without bond, court records show.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles, he appeared in New Orleans criminal court on Tuesday. The judge presiding over his case, Rhonda Goode-Douglas, is tentatively scheduled to consider setting a bond for him on 19 August.
His attorney, public defender Tessa Silverman, declined comment.
Burkhardt once enjoyed a reputation as a crusading police officer who built cases against child abusers in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet his career ended in disgrace and temporary imprisonment after he was convicted of mailing child abuse imagery to undercover agents.
He later admitted again peddling child abuse imagery – and he separately pleaded guilty to sexually molesting a nine-year-old girl to whom he was related by marriage.
Federal prosecutors sought to keep Burkhardt in prison for as long as possible by availing themselves of a law affording involuntary, lifelong commitments for people determined to be “sexually dangerous”. One federal judge found Burkhardt met that definition in 2011 and sent him to a specialized prison in Butner, North Carolina. But after four years of treatment, another judge, James Dever, effectively granted Burkhardt a conditional parole.
Louisiana state police alleged in 2019 that Burkhardt violated that parole by failing to gain permission to use an email address and username that he made for himself to suggestively comment under young people’s photos on a picture-sharing platform. His password for that account allegedly was “boyz4me!”, and he purportedly communicated with email addresses containing the prefixes “boys6to12” and “lovelyyoungpp”.
State police troopers also contended that Burkhardt had violated his parole conditions by removing a stamp from his driver’s license that identified him as a convicted sex offender when he applied for a job with a New Orleans casino.
Prosecutors dismissed that particular case after Burkhardt was ordered back to Butner for another round of treatment. That stint ended on 9 April 2024, when he was sent to a New Orleans halfway house. He was released from that facility on 14 August on the condition that he obey dozens of restrictions to avoid reincarceration, including coming within 100ft of places primarily frequented by children or using websites that promote casual sexual encounters.
Media reports and an investigative podcast titled New Orleans Unsolved have explored links between Burkhardt, the drowning death of a teen that he has been publicly accused of claiming responsibility for, the strangulation murders of three teenagers with ties to the city, and a case centering on the sexually abusive leaders of a Boy Scout troop that produced numerous criminal convictions.
Burkhardt, while being questioned in court after the initial filing of the 2019 charges, denied committing murder. State police investigators who took a fresh look at the deaths of the teens in Burkhardt’s orbit at one point testified under oath that Burkhardt was not considered a murder suspect.
The podcast caught Burkhardt’s attention, according to host Anna Christie in an episode released in early January. After his 2024 release from Butner, Christie recounted how videos related to two particular New Orleans Unsolved episodes were liked by an account named after obscure details that would only be meaningful to Burkhardt.
She said she asked the account if the user was trying to get in touch with her. “Thinking and praying about it,” the user replied.
Christie said her former podcast co-host, New Orleans broadcast journalist Thanh Truong, later called her and – almost in disbelief – told her that he had just encountered Burkhardt at church. According to her, Truong recalled Burkhardt telling him that he was trying to reach out to Christie.
Christie subsequently messaged the account she concluded belonged to Burkhardt and offered to meet him at a public place, Christie said on the show. Christie described how Burkhardt thanked her but was “still in prayer regarding conversation with” her.
Burkhardt had not reached back out by the time of the episode’s release, said Christie, who questioned whether the creation of the account with which he was communicating with her complied with his parole.
A copy of the conditions governing Burkhardt’s August 2024 release from Butner says he must not “create or use any electronic communications service accounts used for user communications, dissemination and/or storage of digital media files … unless previously approved” by officers supervising him.
“This includes but is not limited to email accounts, social media accounts and cloud storage accounts,” the conditions say.
After his arrest in mid-July, Burkhardt faces one charge of improper use or access of social media by a sex offender and two of failing to provide information required of such offenders.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, each of which in many cases could carry up to 10 years in prison under Louisiana law.
