Louisiana judge orders return of devices to ex-priest caught having sex on church altar

A judge in Louisiana has ordered the return of electronics belonging to an ex-Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to obscenity for being caught having sex with two dominatrices atop a church altar while still belonging to the clergy in 2020.

However, the judge also told authorities to erase all data from the devices and storage media as a precaution against videos taken of the tryst from becoming public.

The ruling from state court judge Ellen Creel came in the case centering on Travis Clark as well as dominatrices whose professional names are Lady Vi (also known as Satanatrix) and Empress Ming. The videos in question have been under indefinite court seal ever since the trio’s encounter made international news headlines in 2020.

Clark’s attorneys, Marc Hoerner and Michael Kennedy, said that Creel on 4 August signed an order authorizing law enforcement officials to return cellphones, tablets, computers, gaming consoles, flash drives and memory cards that they seized from Clark while he was under investigation.

Even though Hoerner said that he does not believe any of the sealed videos are on Clark’s electronics, the former clergyman was still awaiting his property’s return on Friday while officials wiped them clean of all data.

Hoerner added that he does not believe the dominatrices – who ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanors – have ever sought the return of electronics seized from them during the case. Yet, if they ever did get them back, officials would wipe those electronics of all data, too, Hoerner said.

Kennedy and Hoerner declined further comment. But the Guardian has learned from multiple sources with knowledge of the case that – among other things – the videos depicted a communion wine chalice being urinated in.

The videos also depict Clark wearing a style of underwear typically worn by women as well as engaging in a sex act in a dormitory on the grounds of the church he once served as pastor in Pearl River, Louisiana, about 40 miles (64km) north of New Orleans, the numerous sources said.

Clark, Lady Vi and Empress Ming all fell under authorities’ scrutiny after a passerby peering through a window saw the three evidently filming themselves having sex on the sanctuary altar at Sts Peter and Paul church on 30 September 2020.

Police responded to the church after they were called by the passerby, who took a cellphone video of what he could see. Beside arresting the group, officers confiscated stage lights, recording devices and sex toys.

New Orleans archbishop Gregory Aymond – whose archdiocese had filed for federal bankruptcy protection months earlier amid the fallout of a decades-old clergy child molestation scandal – had the altar burned and consecrated a replacement.

Hoerner has previously maintained that Clark’s actions may have offended Catholics but were legal, consensual acts among adults. Nonetheless, Hoener has said, for his client to move on with his life, Clark pleaded guilty to obscenity in 2022.

The women, who traveled to Pearl River, Louisiana, from out of state, pleaded guilty that same year to institutional vandalism, and like Clark they were sentenced to probation.

Clark ended up serving some jail time after he was found to have violated his probation terms by giving an interview to New Orleans’s NBC affiliate in which he explained the episode from his perspective.

He told the NBC station, WDSU, that the celibate life which Catholic priests promise to lead along with the social distancing practices implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic at the time left him facing “issues of loneliness and wanting human interaction”.

“Struggling and falling, sinning, too – priests sin as well,” said Clark, who voluntarily left the priesthood. He went on to say that he still believes in God and continued considering “mercy and forgiveness very important”.

Lady Vi gave an interview in October’s issue of Hustler magazine in which she said she had been “invited to film porn”, and the shoot location was at the church.

“Unfortunately, trespassers filmed us without our consent,” Lady Vi told the publication. She referred to the group’s subsequent prosecution, criticized the media’s coverage of the case, alluded to remarks from Aymond that the altar sex was “demonic”, and asserted: “What matters is that we were consenting adults filming porn in a private location.

“But because we were in the [southern US region known as the] Bible Belt and the building had mythical significance, it was deemed a crime.”