The recent arrest of Boris J. Braggs, a 43-year-old teacher at Robinson Elementary School and pastor in West Monroe. Charged with trafficking children for sex, indecent behavior with juveniles, and computer-aided solicitation of a 15-year old.
Braggs was ensnared in a Louisiana State Police and FBI operation targeting would-be online predators. The twist? There was no victim.
The “15-year-old girl” was a fiction crafted by undercover agents who posted a provocative ad on a notorious website, luring Braggs into explicit chats and a hotel rendezvous where he was arrested. No child was ever at risk, yet the charges could ruin his life.
The visceral shock of a teacher and pastor’s arrest is undeniable, but this case raises troubling questions about justice.
Braggs didn’t prey on a real minor; he engaged with a police-orchestrated setup.
Louisiana law allows convictions for “attempted” crimes based on such simulations, punishing intent over action. This smells of entrapment—where the government doesn’t just catch criminals but creates them. By dangling bait on a public forum, law enforcement induced a crime that might never have occurred otherwise.
Was Braggs a predator, or merely a man who stumbled into a trap?
Rev. Braggs was not the only one, another man Ashton Fabela, was also nabbed in a similiar way but for interacting with what he thought was a teen willing to give gay sex.
Neither Rev. Braggs or Fabela were charged with conspiracy or “attempted” offenses, but with actually committing the crimes.
Entrapment, legally defined as government inducement of someone not predisposed to commit a crime, should protect against such tactics. These stings target the impulsive rather than dismantling actual trafficking networks.
Real predators exploit vulnerable children through grooming, not by answering ads. Meanwhile, the fallout devastates communities: The parish school board has banned Braggs, parents grapple with distrust, and his church reels. A man’s career is shattered for a crime that never materialized, raising questions about proportionality and fairness.
These operations inflate arrest numbers but do little to address root causes like inadequate mental health support or education. Resources should focus on stopping genuine exploitation, not scripting scenarios to pad statistics.
Lawmakers must tighten entrapment laws, requiring clear evidence of predisposition. Prosecutors should reserve stings for high-risk targets with proven histories, and courts need to scrutinize these cases rigorously: Did the crime exist before the police intervened?
Braggs’ case is a warning. We must balance the pursuit of predators with the risk of overreach. Punishing thoughts rather than deeds erodes justice, turning prevention into provocation.
We do not condone Braggs’ actions nor those of Mr. Fadela, but we have serious reservations about government entrapments that focus on the prurient interests of any citizen that result in charges that will punish them as if they had actually committed the crime rather than simply “attempted” the offense.
