text: Lafourche man convicted of raping teenager after tying up her mother in another room
  LAFOURCHE PARISH - A jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict Thursday for a Cut-Off man accused of raping a teenage girl while her mother was tied up in the other room over three years ago.
  The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office said that Morgan Ratley, 55, was found guilty Thursday of first-degree rape and sexual battery.
  Ratley reportedly got close to the teenage victim's mother before he began sexually assaulting her daughter. In July 2019, he was accused of tying the mother to a chair in her Cut-Off home and raping her daughter in another room.
  The victim and her mother reported the abuse to the sheriff's office, and Ratley was taken into custody in the days following the assault.
  Thursday, he was found guilty after a three-day trial under Judge Christopher Boudreaux.
  Ratley was ordered to remain in law enforcement custody until he's sentenced on Oct. 19. He faces a mandatory life sentence without probation or parole for first-degree rape, as well as up to 10 years without probation or parole for sexual battery.