Woman Claimed Reporter Solicited Sex from her on Facebook

The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office has closed an investigation into a criminal complaint filed earlier this week by a woman who accused WAFB (Baton Rouge) reporter Jim Shannon of telling her via Facebook that he would give her $100 for oral sex.

Shannon attorney says his client did not make the offer and that his Facebook account was hacked. He claims it was someone else that posted the offer for oral sex.  

Shannon declined comment.

25 year old Kristen Clark Babin filed the complaint Monday with the Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives looked into a possible cyberstalking count but found “no credible evidence nor any criminal charge that coincides with the original complaint that was filed,” the Sheriff’s Office stated in a news release. The investigation is considered closed, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Babin declined comment, referring all questions to her attorney, Jarrett Ambeau.

Ambeau said his client simply presented what information she had to the Sheriff’s Office and let detectives investigate the incident from there. Ambeau said Babin doesn’t plan to file a lawsuit.

“At this point, I don’t think she has any further comment,” Ambeau said. “It is what it is.”

WAFB General Manager Sandy Breland said in an email Friday that the television station had the matter under review until the criminal investigation was closed. She declined further comment on the matter.

Images of the alleged conversation posted by Babin to Facebook show someone purporting to be Shannon sending Facebook messages from a cellphone. The messages appear to have been sent from the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Miss., Ambeau said.

The interesting thing is that Shannon was in Biloxi at the time the messages were sent, but his wife says he was not at the Beau Rivage Casino. 

Babin claims the exchange occurred after she made a post on her Facebook page about her job situation. The person purporting to be Shannon messaged her after that post, saying “I got a job for ya!!!!” and mentioning a potential position at WAFB before asking if she wanted “a quick 100” in exchange for oral sex.

Shannon’s wife, local attorney Jill Craft, said Friday the allegations against her husband are false.

“I love my husband very much,” she said. “These allegations are ridiculous. They’re false. I know they’re false because I was with him the entire time.”

Babin does not know Shannon, but says she had accepted a Facebook friend request from him about two or three weeks earlier because he is a public figure.

“She never had any communication with him between the time she accepted his friend request and his first comment at 6:45 p.m. Saturday night,” Ambeau said.

H/T The Advocate