SERIALously - 27: WARNING! Gave Students Cupcakes with Semen Hidden in Them. Couple Charged w/ 150 Sex Crimes

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

Today we are revisiting the case of Dennis and Cynthia Perkins. Dennis Perkins and his then-wife, a former Livingston Parish schoolteacher, had faced a total of 150 felony charges after their arrests in 2019. Cynthia Perkins pleaded guilty last year to reduced charges and was sentenced to 41 years in prison in a deal contingent upon her testifying against her ex-husband, had he gone to trial. He plead guilty in Jan 2023. Another woman, Melanie Curtin, received a life sentence last year after a jury found her guilty of helping the ex-deputy rape and film an unconscious woman in 2014. Dennis Perkins was the final defendant to have his case resolved in the sex crimes probe. Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise xx All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. hey everybody welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of serialously with me your true crime bestie annie and i am breaking down another crazy case for you today before we jump in though please just take a quick second double check that you are subscribed and following the podcast check whatever podcast app you're using to listen to this on. It should be in like the corner. Make sure you're following that way you'll be notified every time I drop a new episode or a bonus episode off the cuff. And then if you have an extra 30 seconds and you want to leave a rating or a review, I would greatly appreciate it. So without further ado, let's talk about what we are here to discuss today. So this case that we're talking about today is one of the most confusing, angering,

and absolutely mind-blowing cases that I have ever heard of. It's a case in which two people who work in public service, a police officer and a teacher, absolutely fail the public and the people that they are supposed to be serving. And not just that, but these two people are evil beyond measure. And there is a lot that goes into this case, so much so that there's actually a 52-page affidavit that details everything that rolls into it. And I'm talking about crazy crazy things. And this case includes laced cupcakes that were given to students, it includes essay, and even intimate activity with an animal. I can't use that word. It starts with a B. You may know it, so throw it in the chat if you

know it, but it even includes that. So buckle up, guys, and let's dive right in. Cynthia Perkins is 39 years old, and Dennis Perkins is 47 years old. This couple lives in Louisiana and appeared to be what everyone thought was normal. A typical American couple living in Louisiana, happy-go-lucky, public service, you know, a cop and a teacher, nothing really strange about it. They dated for quite some time, but they ended up getting married in Las Vegas in 2018. Now, Cynthia was a teacher, as I mentioned, in Louisiana, and she had been a teacher at the local high school since 2016, and before that, she had been working at the middle school

that was not far away. She first started her employment with the school district back in 2012, and she taught elementary school, middle school, and now high school. Dennis? Dennis was a lieutenant for the sheriff's office. He was the head of the SWAT team, as a matter of fact, and according to everybody who knew him, he was extremely well-liked and extremely likable. He had worked for the department since 2002, so both of these two people had long-standing careers in public service. But behind closed doors, there was something much more sinister going on with this couple. Their interests, their desires, their intimate fantasies were not only very dark, but very vulgar and truly, truly horrifying. And this went under the radar for quite some time. But like all skeletons that are tossed inside a closet, they always come back to haunt you. And their skeletons came out to haunt them in October of 2019. In 2019, the LBI, the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations, found a photo of the couple nude

with a minor in that photo. And they received this photo after receiving a tip from the NCMEC. And go ahead, I'm going to throw the acronym and what it means here in the chat, but it's a National Center for Children. Upon receiving this photo, they trace it back to the IP address to figure out where it originated from, and that IP address that they traced it back to belonged to Dennis Perkins. And initial search warrants showed tons of images, including child, pee, I often say corn, rhymes with corn, doing of children, Dennis self-servicing onto pastries and also even including videos of public showing himself so with all of this evidence agents were very quickly able to secure a warrant for Dennis's arrest on October 22nd 2019 investigators head to a location in

Louisiana where Dennis was on a fishing trip. He was read his rights and agreed to come in and answer any questions that they had for him. However, as he was questioned and as he was giving these officers and investigators these answers, he tells them that he had thrown his phone in the lake right before they came and arrested him. Now, why would you, first of all, share that information? Because they can easily probably go and recover your phone now and find things, because clearly it shows that you were trying to hide something. But it just seems like a very odd thing to say.

As the agent's questioning progresses, and as they start asking Dennis questions about the images that they found, he immediately asks for an attorney. Now, while all of this was happening and the questioning was going down, the LBI executed a search warrant on the Perkins family home. And what they found in that search made this investigation extremely more disturbing and much, much more broad. They found multiple devices inside this house that had extensive, extensive image libraries relating back to that photo that they got in this initial tip they uncovered five

terabytes of data that had been encrypted and backed up from multiple devices and just to level set on how big a terabyte is let me explain this there are a thousand gigabytes in one terabyte. Now a smartphone has approximately 64 gigabytes and can hold up to 18,000 high quality photos. This means that the data they recovered had approximately 288,000 images per terabyte and they found five terabytes, taking this to over 1 million images. As they continue to search the house, Cynthia arrived home late in the evening. They immediately read her her rights, and she too agrees to go in for questioning, but the second the questioning gets steered in the direction of

the images that were found, she of course stops answering. The couple was arrested and charged with 150 crimes of sexual nature. Charges included first degree R.A.P.E., producing child pee, videoing, essay on somebody younger than 13, mingling harmful substances, and much more. And the victims of these crimes included two adults, two children, of these crimes included two adults, two children, and one dog. Yes, a dog. Cynthia was hit with 72 felony counts in this indictment, and Dennis was hit with 78 counts. On the day of their arrests, Cynthia resigned from her teaching job, and Dennis was fired from the sheriff's office, a place that he had worked since 2002 for almost 20 years. The details surrounding these charges, these 150 charges, started to surface and these details were truly unimaginable and the search warrants that outline some of this are honestly just horrifying. Out of all of those

images that had been recovered, there were over 60 images that showed a girl younger than 13 years old in these images, and alongside her was Dennis and Cynthia. And in these images, Dennis and Cynthia are engaging in activity with this young girl while she's sleeping. Now in the arrest affidavit, these details of their participation and the exact acts are outlined in much greater detail, but again I can't read them on YouTube because I will 100% get flagged because it is very graphic and very disturbing. So instead I did a video on Patreon where I go over the entire affidavit with you and read everything where nothing needs to be in code, nothing needs to be censored. So if you're interested in that, we'll talk more about

it here in a little bit. During the search, they also found a variety of pharmaceuticals, and a lot of these medications were extremely strong. But the same common feature that they all had was that it increased drowsiness, sleepiness, and muscle relaxation. So once they had all of this information and the arrests were made, they also changed Dennis's original arrest to reflect these new charges. And in those new charges, they outlined the child pee, the videoing, and the RAPE of the child under 13 years old. and the RAPE of the child under 13 years old. Something I like to mention is that the girl who is under 13 years old, her name has been redacted from the affidavit,

and she's at the center of a lot of these charges that we're about to get into, but her name is redacted for privacy. However, given the details in the affidavit regarding the couple's accessibility to this young girl, it leads me to believe that it is a very close family member. And I'm just going to leave it at that and let you figure out the balance. These occurrences with the young girl started back in April of 2019, and they happened weekly, if not sometimes even daily, and they were all recorded. Well, I guess not all of them were recorded. The ones we know about, which are a lot, and we're going to discuss, were recorded, but I'm sure that there probably were other instances that perhaps weren't on video. And in addition to all of those videos

with this young girl, here are some of the other videos that were discovered when they executed that search warrant. November of 2014, a video depicting an RAPE of an adult was recorded involving Dennis and this adult, and also footage from a seemingly small pin camera, a spy camera, in public bathrooms. In May 2019, there was a video of this young girl under 13 years old holding a banana and kneeling by a glass door. And you can hear Dennis in the video instructing her what to do with the banana, what to perform. And Dennis appears to be partially clothed, and then he kind of emerges from the side of to the dog, where the dog makes contact. And then Dennis begins to self-service.

Investigators also found a home movie that the couple made of the two of them on a plane, but not in the bathroom, on the plane, in the seats where everyone was sitting around them, and you can see all of the other people in the seats while they're doing this, and Cynthia is self-servicing herself and also performing lollipop activity on Dennis. Sorry guys, I hate that I have to censor things so much on here. Then there was more video, and this video took place the first three weeks of June 2019, and in these video recordings, it was physical activity between Dennis and their dog. Yes, yes, their dog. Then from footage, going all the way back to May 2018 through February 2019, it shows Dennis leaving his mixture on cupcakes and inside energy drinks

that were given to people to consume without their knowledge. And some of these cupcakes and pastries were given to students of Cynthia's by Cynthia. So in addition to all of this horrible, horrific evidence that they have already had, and again, the details I outline elsewhere, and they are just like, as if that wasn't enough, there was even more disturbing footage that was discovered, if you can believe it. And in this footage, it was a tape that was discovered in which the couple was engaging in physical activity, another home movie of sorts. And this recording was from April 12th, 2019, the same window of time in which they were regularly and repeatedly videoing themselves with the girl under 13 years old. And in this video of Cynthia and Dennis doing their thing, Cynthia's wearing the

young girl's school uniform. They were role-playing and Dennis was calling Cynthia by the young girl's school uniform. They were role-playing and Dennis was calling Cynthia by the young girl's name and Cynthia was responding to him in a young high-pitched somewhat baby voice telling him no no and then instructing him to leave his mix on her school skirt. I mean truly sick. And as they were in the throes of making all of these videos of them hurting this young girl who was younger than 13, the videos of themselves engaging in activity, Cynthia decides that she's gonna write out a fantasy note in her phone. And in the notepad on her phone, she writes out this fantasy on May 8th, 2019. This note outlines in great, great detail the acts that they had engaged in together with a 12-year-old girl. And this note says, and I quote, punished. Therefore, we found her for this reason. She will receive the punishments that our daughter

deserves. The girl will try to explain that she is still only 11, but tomorrow is her 12th birthday. The note then continues to describe the girl as being tied up before being dragged by her hair by Cynthia to the bed and then essayed by Dennis. Then in a very sick ending to this fantasy note that she has drafted up, she says that the girl is silently crying with tears streaming down her face. I mean, guys, honestly. While searching Dennis's tech and his search history, and we know that Google always sheds a lot of light on different situations. They discovered hundreds of searches, very detailed searches that tied back to so many of these activities that were in the video, but also searches not only of the details of that act,

but including the keywords stepdaughter and stepfather. they also found photoshopped images that dennis had created himself of himself with school-aged girls. all of these searches in google and all of these photoshopped photos and the details behind them are foul. like horrifyingly detailed and disgusting. and those details are outlined word for word in the affidavit, but I can't say them here again, guys, because YouTube would probably blow up my computer. But I am sharing that on Patreon, and you guys can come take a look as I read it. This young girl ended up doing an interview with a specialist, and in this interview, she says that three years prior, Cynthia had pulled her by her hair into a bathroom, slammed her head into the wall, threw her to the ground, began slapping her and hitting her, and then she also shared with this interviewer

text messages that Cynthia had sent her a long time ago blaming her for relationship problems that Cynthia was having in her previous relationship prior to Dennis. So again, without giving the detail of who this family member is, the young girl, could it be one of those situations that we see where oftentimes the older adult woman is jealous or feels threatened by the younger, prettier person involved in the situation and thinks that because whoever they're with is attracted to this person, it's this person's fault for basically, and that they're basically asking for it. So you might be wondering at this point, with all of that media, with everything that they had, and the way they were acting, the way they

were behaving, how could this have gone undetected for so long? How was nobody picking up on these red flags? Or were these people just ignoring the red flags? So in order to really understand all of that, we have to take it back a few years, because there were initial signs all the way back to 1998 with Dennis's behavior that showed he was absolutely not okay. He was a walking red flag. In July 1998, Dennis interviewed with the Baton Rouge Police Department, and part of this process is that he's interviewed by members, and this interview takes place in response to a questionnaire, a survey, that Dennis has to complete ahead of a polygraph test that

they have to take. So he had taken this survey, but there were a few questions where his answer bothered these people, and so they wanted to follow up with him and get a little bit more clarity into why he answered the way he answered. And the questions that they were following up on were, one, had he ever engaged in physical activity in a public place, to which he marked yes. And when he had to explain it, he says that sometimes he would touch his wife's butt while they were in public, something very minor. Another question, when asked if he has ever engaged in physical activity with someone younger than 17, he had marked yes, and he advised that when he was

18, he engaged in activity with somebody who he later found out was 13 years old. When asked if he had ever shown himself in public, he marked yes, and he explained that he had once flashed himself to get beads at Mardi Gras. And I mean, I gotta give it to this guy, because he had an answer for everything, and he was pretty smart with those answers. He knew he was going to fail the polygraph, I'm sure, so getting ahead of that in this survey portion when he's answering these questions, he's not giving them the answer they want to hear as far as the yes or the no, but then the excuse that he has for it really walks that fine line at first. Not all of the answers, but it really walks that fine line to where it can be excusable, you may understand why,

so kind of smart in his defense. When asked about theft or ever inappropriately using a credit card, he also marked yes, and he said that he had once made up a credit card number just to see if it would work online. When asked if he ever has disturbed the peace or looked into windows, he also said yes, and when explaining explaining that he said that there was a couple of times three years ago that he looked through the window while his sister-in-law was changing but that's my first red flag not really a great excuse you're admitting to you know peeping so that's a red flag you're kind of starting to lose your touch with all these good excuses when asked if he had ever participated in the sale or production of any horrible materials

wink wink such as like child pee he said yes and his excuse and his response for that was that he had once sent images of a girl to a website but that the website never posted the images another red flag still not a great excuse my man not a great excuse when my man, not a great excuse. When asked if he had ever engaged in physical activity in exchange for money or property, he said yes, and he said that he had once paid for physical activity by an escort three years ago, but then he crosses that out and writes three weeks ago. Lastly, when asked if he had ever committed a felony or a misdemeanor while being a police officer, he marked no. But then there was a note from one of the board members scribbled in that said that he did admit to having physical interactions and activity with the girl while he was on duty.

Every board member ended up unanimously recommending against hiring Dennis. I mean, obviously, hello, this guy is a walking red flag. But just four years later, he was hired on with the Livingston Sheriff's Office. And we really start to see a pattern of escalation here. And we talk about patterns a lot here on this channel. When we go back to timelines and when things occur, we see a pattern of escalation here where he starts with these somewhat minor things, which he's admitted to now in the survey and now he's starting to ramp up and this still is all prior to this big arrest that took place in 2019. So in August of 2012 while he was on duty as a cop at a traffic stop he stops a woman and he has a pin camera hidden and as he's at this woman's window, he is aiming the camera directly at her blouse.

Then when he asks her to get her license out of the glove box, he moves the pin camera to look underneath her trousers. And as she's leaning over the center console to reach in the glove compartment. And he does this to her three times, asking her to continue to pull things out of the glove compartment. And he does this to her three times, asking her to continue to pull things out of the glove compartment. And he just continues to move the camera to see up and see her personal assets. Then on January 12, 2013, he videoed a young girl, younger than 13, asleep on her stomach.

And Dennis can be heard in this video self-servicing the video while he zooms in and out on this girl up close and creepy and disgusting and then he leaves his mix right next to the girl's legs 10 days later on january 27th 2013 he does this again but this time it's two girls and they're both asleep it's approximately two in the morning the tv is on in the background they're on the couch i think it's safe to assume it's perhaps a sleepover and the girls both asleep. It's approximately two in the morning. The TV's on in the background. They're on the couch. I think it's safe to assume it's perhaps a sleepover, and the girls both fell asleep. So he once again is zooming in and out on them, self-servicing, and then bam, on the edge of the bed near the girls' feet. As all of this information was coming to light, and as all of this evidence was being gathered, on December 3rd, 2019, not long after the arrest, investigators spoke with an adult female

who was not only a friend of the couple, but also a friend of the adult that they were charged with RAPE. She recalled a night that she was visiting the couple's home. She says that once she got there, Dennis had asked her, her friend, who was in one of those charges, and Cynthia to explain what their special talents are. She says that she immediately felt uncomfortable, so she said that

her special talent was reading people, and she left, but she says her friend stayed behind. She also says that at some point in September or October of 2018, she went to the couple's house and brought along her young daughter, and she says while she was there, she had a drink, ended up passing out, and the next morning she woke up in their daughter's bedroom. And she says that she had no recollection of what happened. She had no idea how she had passed out. So she asks Cynthia what went on, what happened? And Cynthia responds, I took care of you. I mean, this couple was all sorts of red flags and predatory, just doing and recording and just gross, gross, gross stuff. Shortly after their arrest, Cynthia ended up filing for divorce from Dennis, and she said that he had actually manipulated her

into committing all of these crimes. And then good old Cynthia flipped on Dennis. Cynthia struck a deal just hours before jury selection was to take place for her trial. And this plea deal that she agreed to resulted in the dismissal of 68 of those charges. This only left three charges against Cynthia, and in exchange for this deal, she had to not only plead guilty to those charges, but she also had to agree to testify against her ex-husband Dennis at his trial. The three charges that she pled guilty to were second degree R.A.P.E., producing child, P., and conspiracy of mingling harmful substances, which were those cupcakes that she fed to her students that had Dennis's mix in them.

Like, oh, just disgusting. And she was sentenced to 41 years of hard labor in prison without the possibility of parole. Perkins, whose appearance has drastically changed since she was first arrested, was largely unemotional today, showing little emotion when her victims spoke in court, only crying when her parents gave statements to the judge before sentencing. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Those are the only words Cynthia Perkins muttered today in court. The former Livingston Parish school teacher pleading guilty to three counts of the 72 she was initially charged with.

Prior to sentencing, Cynthia issued an apology to her victims. And she says, I would like to apologize to my three children. I haven't spoken to them in three years. I love them and I miss them and I'm sorry. I love them and I miss them and I'm sorry. Cynthia's attorney also says that Cynthia's ex, Dennis, is the one who caused all of this, saying he is the real monster. That's what she wants to make clear. It's not about shifting blame. She took responsibility today. I mean, that's what she did. She looks forward to going after the real monster. Dennis manipulated her and twisted her into doing a lot of things that

she was not comfortable doing. I do think justice has been done so far and you know we have one more trial to go. She said she was sorry and she wants everybody to know that. She apologized to everybody in the parish, everybody in the state, the victims, the victim's family, her family. She showed a lot of remorse. It took a lot of courage for her to do that in front of everyone. And she looks forward to helping go after the real monster, and that's Denny Perkins. There's no blame shifting. He is the real monster. That's what she wants to make clear. It's not about shifting blame. She took responsibility today. I mean, that's what she did, but she looks forward to going after the real monster. Doesn't really sound to me like a statement that she is taking accountability at all. At all. 100% she's shifting the blame. She's putting it all on Dennis here, saying that she's a poor victim

of his as well. And as for Dennis, his trial hasn't started yet, but prosecutors are seeking to convict him on over 150 criminal charges. The former couple has also been hit with four lawsuits, and these lawsuits accused the couple of feeding the students at that junior high school the baked goods that had Dennis's mix in them on occasions in both 2018 and 2019. on occasions in both 2018 and 2019. One of the complaints alleges that a father of one of the students who ate one of the contaminated cupcakes has now fallen into a severe depression over the circumstances and has not been able to find gainful employment. Another lawsuit had claimed that a student and the parent had been affected by mental health and behavioral problems and have not been able to even sleep since the cupcake incident. In the third suit that was filed last May, a student's parents alleged

that Cynthia had showed this young girl inappropriate things and that she also photographed and videoed this minor. All four lawsuits, which were filed completely separately and at different times, they all accuse the Livingston Parish School Board of negligence. And it remains unclear if any of these lawsuits are going to be taken further at different times, they all accuse the Livingston Parish School Board of negligence. And it remains unclear if any of these lawsuits are going to be taken further at this time,

but I'm sure we're going to hear more about that soon. But here's a twist that nobody really saw coming. There was a third party arrested in connection with some of these crimes. Someone who worked with Dennis at that sheriff's office. A woman. A woman by the name of Melanie Curtin, who was 41 years old. She had briefly worked for the sheriff's office starting back in 2011, and her ex-husband is a former deputy. She was arrested in New Orleans on February 1st, 2020, after she had returned to the country from a cruise, which that was literally right before the lockdown happened and when all that drama was happening with cruises. So I can't help but laugh about that.

Anyways, she was charged with first degree essay and videoing it. And this stems from an incident that had taken place on November 8th, 2014, in which Melanie assisted Dennis in essaying a woman while this woman was unconscious. And there was a 17-minute video of this disturbing incident that was shown during Melanie's three-day trial to the jury. They watched every single minute of what had happened. The jury found her guilty of the most

serious charge of aggravated R.A.P.E. and this carries a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury also found her guilty of videoing everything. So are there more victims? Are there more perpetrators? This case is one that truly, truly haunts me, especially after reading that 52-page, very, very detailed affidavit. I have a video up now on Patreon that has that affidavit, so you can go through that entire document yourself, read it, we can talk about it. If you're interested in the details, head over there if you think you can stomach it. The link's in my description box below. Thanks for tuning in with me today, guys. I know it was one that I had to throw a lot of code words out, and I know it was one that was not easy to stomach.

Thanks for letting me break down another crazy true crime case with you. I just feel like we're talking through it like besties. I really do. Before you head out, please don't forget to just double check. Make sure that you are following along with the podcast so that you don't miss any extra bonus episodes that I drop that are outside of the normal release schedule. bonus episodes that I drop that are outside of the normal release schedule. And again, if you have an extra 30 seconds to spare, I would greatly appreciate it if you would just quickly rate and write a review for the podcast. It helps support the podcast. It's a free way to do so and helps push it out there so that more people get notified about it and know about this podcast and can be besties with us and talk true crime with us. All right, guys. So until the next episode,

take care and I will be talking with you very soon. Bye, guys. Thank you.