By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Former lieutenant for the St. John Parish Sheriff’s department Allan Wayne Schaeffer appeared in state district court Thursday to enter a plea of innocent to charges of aggravated rape, second-degree battery, and attempted sexual battery.

Schaeffer, a 16-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, was taken into custody January 14, after a state grand jury indicted him on the charges listed above. He entered his plea at the LaPlace courthouse shortly before noon.

According to the indictment, Schaeffer is charged with one count of aggravated rape in connection with an incident in November 2005, and one count of second-degree battery in connection with a May 2006 incident. Both incidents were documented in an October 2007 complaint filed with the St. John Sheriff’s Office by a former girlfriend of Schaeffer. The complaint eventually led to Schaeffer’s termination from the force by Sheriff Wayne Jones in late October.

The one count of attempted sexual battery listed in the indictment comes from an incident in February 2007 involving a woman who accused Schaeffer of trying to force her to perform a sex act on him while she sat in a parked car outside the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility.

As a result of the indictment, Schaeffer was detained on $335,000 bond, which, according to State District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy, would not be reduced.