More Details On The Lafayette Inmates Facebooking

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Depatment spokesman Kip Judice tells KPEL that there are several avenues being investigated today about how, and in what real manner, two LPCC inmates, were able to partake of Facebook.  Judice says all inmates are rigorously searched when they are coming into the jail.  He says all avenues are being looked into to determine, for sure, how Tommy Bourque was able to communicate via Facebook.

Did Bourque have a phone or other wireless device?  Did Bourque's girlfriend get a text picture of Bourque and fellow inmate Robert Domingue?  Did she use that text on Facebook and just write up things about what was allegedly going on at the jail?  Did the two actually have a wireless device and do the updates themselves?  Did they get the device smuggled in to them, or did one of them smuggle it in on "their person"?

A string of these questions and a host of others are being asked by investigators according to Kip Judice.  He says they are working to determine how the photo was really uploaded to Facebook, "how was the photo uploaded from what IP address? I mean it could take us a couple of weeks to get a subpoena in from Facebook to determine how that photo was uploaded and those postings".

Judice says that they were given a "second name of an inmate, and they were able to confirm that there were some Facebook postings as recent as two to three days ago".  Judice adds though, they do not know if the inmates are actually posting from inside the jail or if they are getting help from on the inmates' girlfriends on the outside. Judice says, "What we did, um, was order a full search of that facility. It's a called a shakedown, so a shakedown was conducted in the facility."  He says investigators will work very hard to try to determine exactly what happened in this case.  One of the two inmates gave us a statement that a phone had made its way into the facility a couple of months ago.  While the phone was in there, he took a picture of  himself in his cell, and he texted that to his girlfriend.  She has been updating his Facebook page on the outside. It's hard for a girlfriend to post what he says she was posting.  I know the investigation is continuing, but I don't know if we are able to establish enough evidence to disprove what he is telling us at this point."

It will likely be some time before all the facts are known in the case according to Judice, but he says there is no doubt that a device made it into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center at some point.  We will bring you more details in the case as they develop.