Baton Rouge teacher accused of raping student on campus booked into jail Thursday

BATON ROUGE – A former teacher and track coach at Istrouma High has been arrested after being accused of raping an 18-year-old student at the school last week.

Johnnie Butler, 41, was listed in East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s records Thursday — two days after WBRZ aired allegations raised by the victim’s father. Until then, the parish school system had only placed Butler on paid leave.

The sheriff’s department, where Butler worked as a reserve deputy, said it pulled Butler’s enforcement credentials last week after learning of the accusation. The local school system fired Butler from his $49,000-a-year job on Wednesday.

Butler is accused of third-degree rape and of having sex with a student. Under the law, educators cannot have sexual intercourse with students between the ages of 17 and 21 if there’s a greater-than-four-year age difference between the two.

Butler is 23 years older than the student.

No bond information was immediately available through the jail.

The woman’s father had told WBRZ on Tuesday that Butler asked her to meet him at school, then pushed her into a closet near the gymnasium and attacked her. A hospital administered a rape kit as investigators were summoned.

Butler said he didn’t have sexual contact with the woman and in an interview with a detective acknowledged deleting graphic text messages he had sent her.