A new suit is being filed against the department of child and family services in Louisiana following complaints of a sex ring where the participants were rich white men. James R. Sanders reports.
John Mack is down bad.
The Louisiana businessman was quite the mover and shaker in his heyday. But now at 75, he’s being held with no bail at the Livingston Parish Jail since his arrest on October 14, 2021. Judge Charlotte Foster denied his attorney’s second request for bail in November.
He’s being held on charges of first-degree rape and sexual battery allegedly committed against an underage girl.
The victim was 6 when the abuse began. She’s now a teenager. The NAACP recently got involved with the case and has accused local law enforcement of being careless and ‘dropping the ball’ with investigating the case.
“We need to know why these complaints were overlooked for so long,” Baton Rouge NAACP President Eugene Collins said to Baton Rouge Channel 9.
To make matters worse — for him — Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump is taking on a separate case against Louisiana’s Department of Child and Family Services having to do with years’ long complaints of Black girls being raped by rich white men while in the care of DCFS. Mack, while not directly charged, is one of the men named in the suit.
Watch the press conference where Ben Crump announces plans to sue below:
“It’s beyond heartbreaking and horrifying to hear my client’s stories of such extreme and long-term sexual abuse at hands of wealthy white men, including accused rapist John Mack,” Crump said in a brief statement emailed to NewsOne.
“We should all be outraged that their multiple cries for help to the appropriate state agencies went unanswered for years. These agencies are responsible for these children’s safety; instead, they turned a blind eye and allowed them to suffer horrific abuse for years, as though their lives and their pain had no meaning.”
Crump said his clients who have not been named were forced to attend parties where Mack and others would play ‘sex games’ — during these times, the underaged Black girls were forced to have sex with the rich white men who attended. Mack would get paid to host these parties.
His family, a prominent and somewhat public Louisiana proper line includes Mack’s nephews, state Rep. Sherman Mack and his brother, Livingston Parish Councilman Shane Mack. Both politicians have maintained in the press that they’ve not spoken to their uncle in over a decade.
Crump, who has a daughter, says that this case is personal. “As the father of a young Black girl who I would give my life to protect, it is my honor, my privilege and my weighty responsibility to provide that voice. What we are uncovering will shock the community, and we will not rest until all the facts are known and full justice is done.”
More on this story as it develops.