Horrific Extortion Tragedy

Nude photos part of blackmail scheme that drove popular Texas A&M professor to commit suicide

Newly-released legal documents are shedding light on the mysterious death of James Aune — the well-regarded Texas A&M professor who leapt to his death from a campus parking garage in January, shocking students and colleagues alike.

Daniel Duplaisir, a 37-year-old Louisiana resident, has been arrested and will appear in a Houston federal court Tuesday for using an underage female relative to lure the educator into a sexual online relationship via the social networking and gaming portal MocoSpace.

Text messages reveal that Duplaisir was harassing the professor in the days and hours leading up to his suicide.

According to an FBI affidavit obtained by CultureMap, the young girl, whose name has not been released, told authorities that Duplaisir took nude photos and videos of her as part of an extortion scheme.

Working through a fake name and email account, she would collect phone numbers from male MocoSpace users. Duplaisir would finish the scam by calling the man under the guise of an angry father who needed money to pay for his daughter's therapy.

Text messages extracted from Aune's iPhone reveal that Duplaisir was harassing the professor in the days and hours leading up to his suicide.

Duplaisir sent text messages and emails claiming his daughter — who went by the name of "Karen" — was transgendered and in need of counseling after her explicit relationship with Aune. He threatened to go to the police and Texas A&M administration if the professor refused to pay $4,800.

Hours before Aune's death, Duplaisir went so far as to post an online professor review on Koofers.com saying, "Taught Karen so much."

A minute before he jumped from an A&M parking facility, Aune texted Duplaisir one last message reading, "Killing myself now And u will be prosecuted for black mail." The suspect continued to send texts, eventually lowering his demand to $2,000.

The FBI documents also note that Duplaisir, who goes by the nickname "Smurf," was arrested in Nov. 2011 for aggravated incest and oral battery after his daughter told social services he took naked pictures of her for a similar MocoSpace scam.

Watch the KHOU Ch. 11 report:

Daniel Duplaisir — a.k.a. "Smurf" — was arrested in Nov. 2011 for a similar sexually-charged scheme involving his own daughter.

Daniel Duplaisir, blackmail, Texas A&M professor, James Aune

Photo courtesy of KHOU Houston Channel 11

Daniel Duplaisir — a.k.a. "Smurf" — was arrested in Nov. 2011 for a similar sexually-charged scheme involving his own daughter.

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Beyonce Super Bowl

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”

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