Suspended New Orleans police officer indicted in 3 cases involving alleged abuse of minors

NEW ORLEANS — A grand jury Thursday indicted a New Orleans police officer, who has been suspended without pay since April, in three separate cases involving the alleged sexual abuse of minors. Desmond Pratt was formally charged with forcible rape of a minor and sexual battery of a minor in a case involving a 15-year-old girl. He also was indicted on a charge of carnal knowledge of a juvenile after a Texas resident contacted the police department claiming she had been victimized by Pratt in 1997 when she was a student at a New Orleans public school. The final charge, sexual battery of a minor, involves a complaint of sexual abuse filed against Pratt on Dec. 4, 2001. In that case, police said the victim alleged Pratt sexually violated her when she was a student at a different New Orleans public school.