Pascal Calogero III Accused Of Trafficking, Having Sex With 14-Year-Old

The son of a former Louisiana Supreme Court chief justice was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex and arranging prostitution of her with other men.

Pascal Calogero III, 59, of Metairie was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor by the federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the accused paid the girl for sex on multiple occasions in May 2017. He was charged in a bill of information, which generally indicated the defendant's cooperation with the prosecutors.

The defendant is the son of former Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr., who served on the state’s highest court for 36 years, including 18 years as chief justice from 1990 until 2008.

The prosecutors said there was an unidentified co-conspirator in the incident who went by the initials J.B. It was he who met the minor girl in New Orleans and recruited her into prostitution, they added.

J.B. advertised the then 12-year-old girl online and scheduled prostitution dates for her between May and June 2017. According to reports, she was earning about $1,000 daily but had to hand over nearly most of the money to J.B.

Prosecutors said J.B. sent sexually explicit photos of the girl to Calogero to entice him to meet her.

According to a report on CBS-affiliated KLFY, Calogero drove the teen to and from appointments set up by J.B. and paid the latter no less than $120 for having sex with the minor girl on three separate occasions last May. Calogero drove the girl to a hotel in New Orleans on O'Keefe Avenue for a meet up with another man on May 18, prosecutors alleged.

They added Calogero went on to "facilitate the prostitution of the minor victim to multiple adult men” by advertising the girl by sending sexually explicit photos of her to other interested men via text messages. Calogero negotiated the price and even used his own home as the location for at least one prostitution date between the girl and a man on May 20, they added.

Former Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr. declined to comment on the allegations against his son Wednesday afternoon and told Nola he was not aware of the developments of the case.

If convicted, Calogero will face a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000, reports said.

As of August, Calogero was employed by the city of New Orleans as a lead programmer analyst for the Information Technology Department and was making $77,000 annually, according to a report on KLFY. His current employment status remains unclear.

Calogero will be brought before a court for his arraignment Oct. 10, KLFY reported. He will be represented by defense attorney Billy Gibbens who declined to comment on the case when asked by KLFY.

The case was investigated by the FBI New Orleans Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force, which included members from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, and the Kenner Police Department, and was assisted by the New Orleans Inspector General's Office as well.