CENTRAL — A lawsuit has been filed in the 19th Judicial District Court following the arrest of a 13-year-old charged with criminal damage to property by defacing with graffiti, criminal trespass and hate crimes.

The teen was arrested after a woman's home was vandalized with photos of the home depicting sexually explicit imagery, along with slurs spray-painted along the entryway and garage door. 

The lawsuit alleges that the teen has shown a continued pattern of conducting racially motivated acts towards the family over several months, including property damage, intimidation and acts containing racist imagery and language.

According to the lawsuit in December of 2025, the woman's caregiver exited the home to find that one of her tires had been punctured. In February 2026, the woman was allegedly notified by neighbors that the ditch next to her home was on fire, which the lawsuit claims put the woman's life in danger, as the family believes the fire was intentionally set directly next to her home. 

The lawsuit said that in April, the woman's caregiver noticed that her tire had again been punctured and that a swastika had been inscribed into the paint of the caregiver's vehicle.

It also alleges that on May 24, the 13-year-old exited his home wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe prior to defacing the woman's home with vulgar graffiti, which the suit claims included hate speech such as "HH" for "Heil Hitler", the number 1488, which it claims refers to a white supremicist slogan, and "88" which the suit says is code for "Heil Hitler". The graffiti put on the woman's home also included the n-word.

The lawsuit also seeks to hold the teen's parents responsible not only for the alleged physical damage but also for mental pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of property due to race.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant of the juvenile's residence following the alleged vandalism, where deputies discovered items seen in surveillance footage along with other materials consistent with the crime. 

The 13-year-old was taken into custody and booked into juvenile detention on several charges, including criminal damage to property by defacing with graffiti, criminal trespass and hate crimes.