The Louisiana businessman who got custody of a child born from his alleged rape of an underage girl has “absolutely, unequivocally” denied his accuser’s claim.
“It’s a lie,” John Barnes insisted to Fox News Digital of the rape allegations made by Crysta Abelseth during their custody battle.
“She was in a bar with a fake ID, telling everyone she was a college student,” Barnes insisted of fathering the child with Abelseth in 2005, when he was 30 and she was an underage teen.
“I had no idea she was 16, and I didn’t rape her. That is absolutely, unequivocally false,” insisted the well-connected businessman.
Barnes, who owns tech company Gumbeaux Digital Branding, also denied Abelseth’s during the custody battle that he had “drugged and sexually assaulted” his now-teen child.
“All I have been trying to do is protect my daughter,” Barnes insisted to Fox News Digital of the “very intelligent” girl who “has a very promising future.”
“I want to preserve that and keep her on the right track like any loving parent would want for their child,” he insisted.
Abelseth first petitioned for paternity in 2011 — asking for DNA samples from both Barnes and the then-incarcerated man who had signed the birth certificate, James Threeton, according to a Fox examination of recently unsealed court papers in the case.
Once the test showed Barnes was the real father, he and Abelseth voluntarily agreed to joint custody in October 2011, the report said.
“Ms. Byrd-Abelseth requested Mr. Barnes be named as the father of the minor child and consistently consented to shared custody since the onset of the case,” wrote Tangipahoa Parish Family Judge Jeffrey Cache, who recently gave Barnes temporary custody of the child.
In fact, Barnes insisted to Fox News that he was the one who grew frustrated with the arrangement because Abelseth continued to take the child on prison visits to see Threeton.
He repeatedly asked that Abelseth be held in contempt for allowing various men to sleep over when their daughter was present, in violation of their custody agreement, court papers show.
“Her mother goes through men like a revolving door,” he told Fox.
“Men were coming in and out of my child’s life. She had three husbands in three years and it wasn’t healthy.”
That and the ongoing relationship with Threeton was the basis for him suing for sole custody of the girl in May 2015, the outlet said.
It was a month after that that Abelseth first filed a police report accusing Barnes of having raped her, Fox noted.
It was never properly assigned to be investigated, however, with Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards recently admitting that his department “absolutely dropped the ball.”
In her interviews, Abelseth said that she ultimately lost custody of her now-teen daughter just for allowing her to have a cellphone.
Barnes insisted it was contentious because he believed the girl was using it to upload “various sexually explicit TikTok posts” as well as send “inappropriate photos,” including a picture of herself with a boy in a bed and sexually explicit messages, the court papers show.
He was then barred from seeing his daughter for a month when Abelseth in February accused him of abusing the girl.
There were no criminal charges, however, after a hearing officer ruled on March 18 that “medical evidence does not support allegations in petition,” Fox noted.
Abelseth voluntarily dismissed the restraining order at the hearing through her attorney, according to court documents.
That was three days before Barnes filed for temporary sole custody — accusing Abelseth of making up sex abuse to gain custody, the outlet said. In his petition, he claimed the mom told her daughter to “make any allegations against Barnes so that he would be arrested.”
He was granted temporary sole custody that same day. The next hearing is set for July 15.
Abelseth — who has a 17-month-old son after recently remarrying — reiterated her allegations to Fox News that Barnes raped her after meeting her in a bar in Hammond.
“It’s been a strain, definitely, on my family now because this consumes my life,” she said.
“I’m shook to my core … it has taken a turn that’s unfathomable,” she claimed.
