Elgene Gary is a former police officer and city councilor in Grand Isle, Louisiana. He is also a former member of the Grand Isle Port Commission. In May, 2025, he was convicted of sexually abusing two children, one of them nearly forty years ago.
In 2021, Hurricane Ida forced a sixteen-year-old girl to leave Grand Isle. She went to the State Police and reported that Gary had sexually abused her since she was seven years old until she was fifteen. After the investigation became public another woman in her forties came forward and told police Gary molested her when she was seven to ten years old from 1988 to 1991 back in Michigan.
He was charged with three counts of sexual battery, two of minors below the age of thirteen and one of a minor over thirteen. He was found guilty of all charges.
The younger victim told the court, “I’ve lived not even 20 years, and so much of them have been filled with a lot of difficulties…It’s still hard to look into the mirror, because if I look too long, I see someone who was very young and didn’t know what was happening…I’m so sorry for her and sorry for everyone else who has ever met him. It’s going to take a long time to not hate myself for not knowing sooner. It wasn’t my fault, I know that.”
He was sentenced to forty-five years in June. He is also barred from communicating or having any contact with his victims for 100 years. He is 81.
- WDSU: Former Grand Isle councilman, ex-cop convicted of sexual battery
- Jefferson Parish District Attorney: Former Grand Isle councilman Elgene Gary Sr. gets 45-year sentence for molesting girls
June 17, 2025