By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

EDGARD – A judge ruled Monday that former St. John Sheriff’s Deputy Allan Wayne Schaeffer will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device while out of prison awaiting trial for rape and battery charges.

Schaeffer was released from jail last week after posting a $335,000 surety bond, but Assistant Attorney General Ali Shields, who is handling the case for the state, filed a motion disputing the bond’s validity because the person who signed the paperwork did not show adequate proof that she is worth the full $335,000 or that she owns property in the state as required by Louisiana law. Shields argued that if Schaeffer is allowed to remain out of jail his whereabouts should be monitored electronically because he is a flight risk.

State District Court Judge Mary Hotard Becnel approved the electronic monitoring, but did not act on Shields’ appeal of the bond. That hearing was postponed until March 5 after Schaeffer’s attorney, Richard Stricks of the public defenders office, requested a continuance. Stricks was in traffic court in LaPlace during Monday’s hearing.

Schaeffer, a 16-year veteran and former detective in the St. John Sheriff’s Office, was arrested January 14 after being indicted by a state grand jury on charges of aggravated rape, second-degree battery and attempted sexual battery. He was fired from the force in October 2007 after State Police investigated domestic dispute complaints against Schaeffer filed with the St. John Sheriff’s Office by a former girlfriend. Another woman had also stepped forward with accusations that Schaeffer attempted to abuse her sexually as she sat in a parked car behind the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility.