Chalmette special education teacher booked with indecent behavior with a juvenile over emails and texts sent to a teen-ager who was formerly a student of his but is now living in Tennessee

David C. Kimberly

A St. Bernard Parish prisoner escaped a work detail outside the Parish Prison the night of Dec. 31, then later stole a truck in Chalmette and ditched it in Slidell before he was caught outside a Slidell residence Sunday night, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.A special education teacher at a Chalmette elementary school has been booked with indecent behavior with a juvenile, a felony, over emails and texts he has been exchanging with a teen-ager who was formerly a student of his but is now living in Tennessee, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

David C. Kimberly, 59, 2317 Gen. Pershing St., New Orleans, was booked Thursday night into the St. Bernard Parish Prison after an interview with Sheriff’s Office detectives. He is being held pending his appearance before a magistrate judge on Monday to have bond set.

Kimberly has been teaching in St. Bernard Parish since 2012 and is assigned to Lacoste Elementary School in Chalmette, where he teaches about 15 special education students, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

He said St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office detectives began an investigation of Kimberly after being contacted by authorities in a Tennessee town, who said a woman living there had filed a complaint after finding inappropriate emails on her juvenile son’s computer from a former teacher.

The teacher had set up an email account under a fake name, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

Kimberly, who taught the boy several years ago, had been exchanging emails and texts with the teen-ager as recently as early December last year, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

Kimberly agreed to be interviewed by sheriff’s detectives on Thursday, the sheriff said, and acknowledged the correspondence. The teacher denied having had any physical relationship with the teen or sending any such correspondence to other current or former students.

But Kimberly was booked with indecent behavior with a juvenile because of the content of emails between him and the former student, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

An investigation is continuing, the sheriff said.