Operation Boo Dat: Hard Hand of the Law in the Big Easy

Dozens of Big Easy criminals felt the hard hand of the law during the holidays.

US Marshals arrested 30 people in New Orleans and outlying areas — and rescued five missing teenagers — during the annual Operation Boo Dat crackdown on convicted sex criminals, officials said.

The idea is to sweep potential parole violators from the streets from Halloween through Christmas, with an emphasis on making “sure that registered sex offenders don’t have the light on and they’re not handing out candy,” Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair told Coffee or Die Magazine.

Big Easy — Authorities detained Kuimar Stephans, 34, on Dec. 22, 2021, in New Orleans. He was wanted on warrants for alleged firearms and offender registry violations, according to the US Marshals. New Orleans Police Department photo.

This year, 17 of the arrests were tied to convicted sex offenders who allegedly violated registration requirements. Others were wanted by law enforcement on active arrest warrants. According to US Marshals, they included:

Lorenzo Oliver, 34, who was arrested Dec. 10 on a New Orleans Police Department warrant for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl in an empty West Bank home. Oliver was convicted in 2015 for attempted forcible rape and sexual battery.
Anthony Roberts, 51, who was arrested Dec. 7 in Metairie on a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office warrant for failing to register as a convicted sex offender. He was convicted in 1997 for attempted forcible rape and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
Kuimar “Marty” Stephans, 34, who was arrested Dec. 22 while allegedly trying to flee out of a window in a New Orleans residence while possessing the banned street drug Ecstasy. He also had outstanding warrants for failing to register as a sex offender and for firearms violations. He was convicted in 2012 for simple rape and second-degree kidnapping.

The oldest federal law enforcement agency, the US Marshals Service boasts 94 marshals who oversee 3,953 deputy marshals and criminal investigators nationwide. US Marshals photo by Shane T. McCoy.

Law enforcement officers visited more than 100 convicted sex offenders to make sure they were living at their reported addresses, a process Fair said can take many hours of investigative work. He said his team was “definitely very pleased” with the number of registration compliance checks they made, given the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

This year’s campaign brought together the New Orleans Police Department, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Louisiana State Police, and the US Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force to hunt for the wanted criminals and missing youths.

Fair said they also got support from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI New Orleans Field Office, the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services, Louisiana Probation and Parole, the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans.

Coffee or Die's Noelle Wiehe is on the ground in Louisiana reporting on Hurricane Ida's destruction and the effort to save people, homes, and businesses.

WATCH: https://t.co/Js61WVZEni pic.twitter.com/rFJUmrNZWO

— Coffee or Die Magazine (@CoffeeOrDieMag) September 2, 2021

Fair said several of the missing teens the officers discovered had been trafficked into the sex trade.

“We at least give them a chance to get out of a bad situation and often are able to at least arrest an adult that has been doing something bad, or at least bringing that adult onto law enforcement’s radar,” Fair told Coffee or Die.

0 Shares

Noelle Wiehe

Staff writer

Noelle is an award-winning journalist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who came to Coffee or Die Magazine following a fellowship from Military Veterans in Journalism. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and has strived to be a military journalist ever since her internships with the US Army Cadet Command in college. She worked as a civilian journalist covering several units, including the 75th Ranger Regiment on Fort Benning, before she joined the military herself and served as a public affairs specialist attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. She deployed once to fill a role as a media analyst for the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in Kuwait. She has a passion for sharing stories of heroes and people who are far more interesting than they think they are. She follows where the job takes her, but currently resides on the East Coast in Georgia.