BATON ROUGE - In the years since Cynthia and Dennis Perkins were arrested, a defense attorney says hard drives listed as being found in the couple's safe by investigators have vanished.

The couple have been behind bars since their arrest in November 2019. Prosecutors charged them with a combined 150 counts of sex crimes, including some against children and animals.

Jarrett Ambeau, Dennis Perkins' attorney, told WBRZ this week there are one or two digital storage devices missing from the scene.

"We think at least two hard drives, maybe more," Ambeau said in an interview with WBRZ Chief Investigator Chris Nakamoto. 

Ambeau said investigators "took possession of numerous hard drives in [the Perkins' home], in a safe that my client had.  Those hard drives are now missing," he said.

Originally he said the Attorney General's Office told him they had turned over the evidence to the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office.

"They don't know where it is either," Ambeau said. "It's lost. When I confronted them out of it, they said they must have given it to the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office. Now they made the statement we left it at the house. We have possession of the home, and have had it since the beginning and they are not here."

Court documents indicate that the Attorney General's office processed the evidence but said the files were not relevant. They claim those hard drives were not seized.

However, Ambeau said the hard drives that were in the safes are gone, and Cynthia and Dennis have not set foot back in the house they shared following their 2019 arrests.

Dennis, who was working as a Livingston Parish sheriff's deputy at the time of his arrest, was fired from the department. Cynthia was a teacher at Westside Junior High, but she resigned after her initial arrest. 

The Attorney General's Office released the following statement.

"There are no missing hard drives. We look forward to holding Dennis Perkins accountable and getting justice for the crime victims."

WBRZ also inquired with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office about whether they took possession of any evidence. The Sheriff's Office did not answer those questions and referred everything to the Attorney General's Office.