Sara Pagones

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate

Nov. 21—A former Catholic priest who was arrested in 2020 after a passerby saw him and two dominatrices having sex on the altar of Pearl River church pleaded guilty Monday to a single count of felony obscenity.

Travis Clark, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, listened to 22nd Judicial District Judge Ellen Creel read the elements of the obscenity statute at the courthouse in Covington. “I plead guilty, your honor,” he said.

Clark, 39, received a suspended prison sentence and will serve probation. He declined to comment after the hearing.

While the criminal matter is concluded, Clark will have to appear in court again on Jan. 20 when a permanent civil injunction will be heard that prohibits him and his codefendants from ever profitting from the crime.

The tryst was being recorded on a camera mounted atop a tripod, according to court records.

Clark and two women, Mindy Dixon and Melissa Cheng, were arrested in September 2020 after a passerby noticed lights on at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River. The witness saw Clark, partially naked, having sex with two women who were wearing corsets. When police arrived, they seized sex toys, stage lights, a cell phone and the tripod-mounted camera.

Clark’s guilty plea follows those of Dixon and Cheng, who each pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor count of institutional vandalism. They were issued summonses to testify for the prosecution in Clark’s trial for felony institutional vandalism and felony obscenity. Dixon and Cheng were sentenced to two years of supervised probation.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Authement told the judge that a plea agreement in Clark’s case had been reached, and the institutional vandalism charge was dropped.

The plea agreement was filed under seal at the request of the defense.

Creel sentenced Clark to three years in prison, but suspended the jail time. He will have to serve three years of supervised probation and pay a $1,000 fine.

Clark’s attorneys said that he has already paid full restitution to the Archdiocese of New Orleans — $8,000.

The archdiocese replaced the altar at the church.

Michael Kennedy, one of Clark’s lawyers, argued that he shouldn’t have to serve active probation, saying that the purpose of supervised probation is to prevent a repeat offense.

“In this situation it’s an incredibly specific set of facts and conditions that seem very unlikely to ever happen again,” Kennedy said. He said that the two women were more likely to repeat the offense.

But Creel said that she ordered supervised probation for the two co-defendants and was not inclined to treat Clark differently.

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