By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A 33-year-old LaPlace man has been booked on sexual battery charges after St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s investigators received complaints that he allegedly assaulted his 8-year-old daughter.

Authorities were called to a local home around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday after the girl’s mother reported she walked into a bedroom and found her daughter lying in bed with her father, said Capt. Dane Clement, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office.

According to a Sheriff’s Office report, the mother said her daughter was partially clothed when she walked into the bedroom and she witnessed the father committing a lewd sexual act. Clement said the mother promptly took the daughter away, and the father fled the home before deputies arrived.

Late Tuesday evening, authorities received information the man was seen at a Reserve residence. Clement said the man, whose name was not released to protect the identity of the victim, was taken to the St. John Detective Bureau, where he was arrested and charged with sexual battery. The investigation is still ongoing.

The man was booked into the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility in LaPlace and was being held in lieu of a $200,000 bond.