An investigation headed by the Office of the Attorney General led to the arrest of a 38-year-old graduate student who allegedly sent sexual text messages to a 15-year-old boy enrolled in University Laboratory School. On March 19, the Baton Rouge Police Department booked Michael Cooley, of 6810 Jefferson Hwy. Apt. 3307, Baton Rouge, into prison. Police charged Cooley with computer aided solicitation of a minor, which is a felony. Police issued a warrant for Cooley’s arrest after the Attorney General’s Office of High Technology Crime Unit determined Cooley was “actively pursuing juveniles for sexual conduct.” In a Monday interview with The Daily Reveille, LSU Police Department spokesman Maj. Lawrence Rabalais said Cooley worked at the University Student Recreational Complex at the time of the arrest. Lab School faculty notified LSUPD through e-mail March 10 that Cooley was making contact with a male juvenile. Faculty told LSUPD Cooley was text messaging a student with “topics being sexual in nature.” LSUPD contacted the Office of the Attorney General, which began an investigation assisted by the BRPD and FBI. Detectives interviewed the juvenile March 14 at the Lab School where he told detectives he first met Cooley in September 2007 at an LSU football game, according the arrest warrant. Cooley took the juvenile’s cell phone to retrieve his telephone number. Cooley then described his younger sister as a 19-year-old white female currently enrolled in the University. LSUPD confirmed Cooley does not have a sister. Cooley posed as his “sister” and initiated a series of text messages with the victim. In the messages, Cooley invited the juvenile to his apartment to participate in sexual acts, the warrant said. Rabalais said because the text messages in question were both sent by the suspect and received by the victim off campus, the matter was out of LSUPD jurisdiction. Rabalais said there was no physical contact between Cooley and the juvenile, only contact through text messages. Mike Johnson, deputy director of the Attorney General’s Office High Technology Crime Unit, said the charges are an “Internet crime” under Louisiana law. Johnson said an “Internet crime” involves “any kind of text messaging going through the cyber world.” Johnson would not release any additional information to protect the identity of the juvenile. Johnson said he could not confirm whether there was more than one juvenile involved in the investigation. But Johnson said the ongoing investigation has expanded beyond Louisiana state borders. “This will require a lot more investigating,” Johnson said. Cooley was released the day after his arrest on an $80,000 bond.
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected]