A former New Orleans Police Department detective who led the NOPD’s pedophile investigations unit for years before he was unmasked as a child molester himself admitted in federal court last month that he abused a boy who had turned to him for protection after the boy was preyed upon by his Boy Scout leader.

Stanley Burkhardt’s admission in a Feb. 24 hearing in North Carolina came after years of denying the sex abuse claims leveled against him by Richard Windmann.

Windmann’s 1977 testimony, at age 12, that he was sexually assaulted by a scout leader helped prosecutors convict the leader of nearly 30 molestation charges.

Remarkably, Windmann has said he was a victim in three high-profile abuse scandals of the era, and with Burkhardt’s confession, there is evidence to back him up in each case. In addition to Burkhardt and the Boy Scout leader, Windmann has said he was abused repeatedly at Jesuit High School by a janitor and a priest, and he received a six-figure payment to settle that claim.

While now acknowledging that he molested Windmann, Burkhardt vehemently disputed Windmann’s allegation that he once heard Burkhardt confess to killing a teenager named Edward Wells, who was found drowned in the Mississippi River in 1982.

A Louisiana State Police investigator who testified in the hearing in North Carolina last month said authorities do not suspect Burkhardt of killing Wells. Nor do they suspect him of being involved in a handful of other cold homicide cases that he once helped investigate — cases that were reopened after Windmann spoke out about Burkhardt, according to a 150-page transcript of the proceeding.

The Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office said this week that Wells’ death remains classified as a drowning rather than a killing.

It remains uncertain whether Burkhardt’s confession that he victimized Windmann while working as a New Orleans cop might factor into a civil lawsuit Windmann is pursuing against Burkhardt and the city.

The city has argued that Windmann waited too long to file his lawsuit, but he maintains the statute of limitations shouldn’t apply in his case because he was rebuffed when he tried to report Burkhardt’s abuse to other officers, including Burkhardt’s ex-wife, who is now deceased.

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Windmann said Tuesday that he regards Burkhardt’s admission as “a step in the right direction,” but he was incredulous over testimony that Burkhardt recently called Windmann “a professional victim” in an interview with a psychiatrist.

“It wasn’t my fault I got involved with the Boy Scouts. … It wasn’t my fault I was handed over to him, a serial pedophile,” said Windmann, now 55. “I will not allow Burkhardt to victim-blame and shame me. I am a survivor now.”

Burkhardt became renowned at the NOPD for building cases against pedophiles in the 1970s and 1980s. But his police career ended in disgrace in 1987 when he was arrested for — and later convicted of — trafficking in child pornography; he also acknowledged sexually abusing an underage relative.

A federal judge in North Carolina in 2011 granted a request from prosecutors to sentence Burkhardt to prison indefinitely because he was “sexually dangerous.” In 2015, a second judge ordered Burkhardt’s release provided he met certain conditions.

Last summer, months after Windmann went public about his abuse by Burkhardt, State Police arrested Burkhardt after determining he had violated a number of those parole conditions. They said he failed to notify police of an email address and username he used to leave suggestive comments under pictures of young men on a photo-sharing website. Also, detectives allege, one of his cellphones contained dozens of images of child pornography.

Prosecutors asked a judge to return Burkhardt to prison, setting the stage for the Feb. 24 hearing in North Carolina.

Much of the hearing involved law-enforcement and psychiatric testimony aimed at answering whether Burkhardt’s actions suggest he is capable of abusing another child. The presiding judge is awaiting another psychiatric evaluation before ruling, and the case has been continued until at least April 20.

But Burkhardt’s turn on the witness stand offered perhaps the most complete — and disturbing — account yet about how he positioned himself to have nearly unfettered access to both child pornography and abuse victims.

According to Burkhardt, in 1983, about 11 years after joining the NOPD, he accepted an offer to lead a pedophile investigations unit, despite realizing he had been sexually attracted to children since high school.

He recounted how he first viewed looking at child pornography as part of his job, but “at some point” he became sexually excited by it. He acknowledged it was around that time that he began molesting children, including the relative he was convicted of abusing, plus a second relative and Windmann.

Windmann had testified that he had been sexually assaulted by Assistant Scoutmaster Harry Cramer, a cog in a notorious pedophile ring that abused members of Boy Scout Troop 137 in the mid-1970s. Investigators who were tasked with keeping an eye on Windmann after the Cramer trial introduced him to Burkhardt as they were moved to other assignments.

Windmann said Burkhardt abused him sexually and psychologically for years. Though Windmann testified at the 2011 proceeding where Burkhardt was deemed sexually dangerous, the former cop denied Windmann’s claims at that time.

Burkhardt rescinded that denial at the recent hearing, but insisted he had not physically abused any children after his 1987 arrest.

Windmann opened up about his experiences in 2018 after publicly disclosing that Jesuit High School had paid him a $450,000 settlement in connection with his claims of being abused on campus by a janitor and a clergyman during the 1970s.

Burkhart complained that the media attention surrounding Windmann’s claims cost him his job as a waiter as well as a home amid supportive neighbors in the Upper 9th Ward.

While Burkhardt’s attorney denied authorities had proved he looked at child pornography, Burkhardt acknowledged having run afoul of some of his conditional release terms while in a downward spiral caused by news coverage of Windmann.

“I hated myself,” said Burkhardt, 68. “I just hated and despised myself, and I never felt like that in a long, long, long time.”

Burkhardt’s new admission came days before the debut of “New Orleans Unsolved,” a podcast that revisits the 1982 death of the drowned teenager Wells. Burkhardt once investigated that case.

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During the hearing last month, Burkhardt asserted Wells “was a homicide victim” and had been sexually abused — but not by him.

“Did you ever sexually abuse him? … And did you have anything to do with his murder?” Burkhardt’s attorney, public defender Kat Shea, asked him.

“No,” Burkhardt responded.