The Brave Father

During 1983 and 1984, Gary’s 11-year-old son, Jody Plauché, was attending karate classes from the instructor, 25-year-old Jeffrey Doucet, who had been sexually abusing Gary for at least a year. In February 1984, Doucet abducted Jody and took him to a motel in California where he sexually attacked and abused him. Police searched the country for Jody, and he was finally discovered after Doucet allowed the boy to place a collect call to his mother from the motel. California police raided the motel and arrested Doucet without any adventure attempt.

On March 16, 1984:

Doucet was brought back from California to Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport to face court. Doucet entered and was led in handcuffs by police cops through the airport at around 9:30 p.m., where Plauché was waiting for Doucet with a pistol.

Plauché was friends with many high-ranking police officers in the Baton Rouge Police Station; while many people thought that these contacts told Plauché where and when Doucet would be coming, it was a reporter of the local ABC affiliate WBRZ-TV who provided Plauché the data. A news team from WBRZ-TV was also waiting for Doucet and had set up their cameras to report his appearance. Opposite the news team was a bank of pay telephones, where Plauché stayed while speaking to his best friend on a telephone. He wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, so no one knew who he was.

As Doucet was escorted through the airport, he passed the news team who was recording the event. He then stepped past Plauché, who took out his pistol and fired a single shot, immediately at the right side of Doucet's head, at point-blank range.

Doucet died the next day.

Plauché was originally accused of second-degree killing but decided to a plea bargain in which he pleaded no contest to manslaughter. He was sentenced to seven years suspended, with five years' probation and 300 hours of community guidelines, which he finished in 1989.

Psychological summaries helped Plauché's case after it was learned that Doucet had abused Jody months before the abduction. Edward P. Uzee assessed Plauché and determined that he could not tell the difference between right and wrong when he murdered Doucet. Plauché's defense team claimed that he was driven to a temporarily psychotic state after learning of the abuse of his son. Uzee also explained that Doucet could manipulate others and took benefit of the reality that Plauché was separated from his wife at the time, and had managed to wedge his way into the Plauché family. Judge Frank Saia declared that sending Plauché to jail would not help anyone and that there was virtually no risk of him committing another crime.

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