Special Rule of Privilege in Criminal Cases Provides Greater Protection to the Criminally Accused
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Ernest “Randy” Comeaux is currently an inmate serving six life sentences, without the benefit of parole, at the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, Louisiana. The facts of Comeaux crime were detailed by a Louisiana Court of Appeals in the matter of Smith v. Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department on April 24, 2004:
“From the mid-1960’s until the moid-1990’s, a number of rapes occurred in the southern portion of Lafayette Parish and adjoining parishes which could not be solved. In late 1995, the Lafayette Police Department (LPD) developed a theory that the rapes were connected and could have been committed by the same person. In 1997, DNA testing revealed that semen examples from six rape scenes matched. At that point, LPD began looking for a serial rapist.
“In September 1997, a task force was formed to attempt to solve these related rapes. The task included LPD, LPSD (Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department), Louisiana State Police, the FBI, and the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Unsuccessful, the task force disbanded after approximately seven months. There were no new leads in the case until November 1998 when an anonymous caller suggested to LPD Captain James Craft that Randy Comeaux, a detective with the LPSD Juvenile Division, should be investigated for the rapes. DNA testing on the butt of a cigarette smoked by Mr. Comeaux revealed that his DNA matched semen samples from six rape scenes. After being arrested, Mr. Comeaux confessed to committing a number of rapes, including five rapes in Lafayette Parish.”
Comeaux was indicted and quickly pled guilty to six aggravated rape charges. The former detective was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the benefit of parole.
For purposes of this article, we will assume that prior to his arrest, Comeaux confided in two persons about his rapes: an attorney from whom he sought legal advice about the rapes and a Catholic priest to whom he confessed. These were the only two people who knew Comeaux was the Lafayette serial rapist. One of them apparently violated Comeaux’s confidentially by anonymously calling Captain Craft and telling him that Comeaux should be investigated for the rapes. We will assume the anonymous call came from the lawyer, who was afraid that the rapes would continue until Comeaux was arrested.


