Judge acknowledged error in basing sentence on plea-deal cases
Former DeRidder, Louisiana mayor Misty Roberts has completed the 90-day jail sentence she received for raping a 16-year-old boy while still in elected office, according to state corrections records cited by The Guardian. The 44-year-old was released from custody on the Labor Day holiday, one week after the judge who presided over her case acknowledged in court that he had erred in imposing the lighter sentence.
Roberts faced up to 17 years in prison after jurors in early March convicted her of carnal knowledge of a juvenile — colloquially known as statutory rape — and indecent behavior with a minor. Prosecutors established that she sexually assaulted the underage victim while they drank alcohol at a pool party at her home in July 2024. The victim was a local high school student who was a friend of Roberts’s son; her son served as a key witness in the case.
Roberts was mayor of DeRidder at the time of the crime, having held the post since 2018. She resigned days before authorities arrested her in early August 2024.
At a 31 August hearing, Judge Kent Savoie rejected a request from prosecutors to force Roberts to serve a harsher sentence. Savoie nonetheless acknowledged in court, according to KPLC, that he was mistaken to have based the original sentence on a list of more than 30 cases that had been resolved through plea deals — unlike Roberts’s case, which had culminated in a jury trial and guilty verdict.
“I asked someone to get me a list of cases similar,” Savoie was quoted as saying. “I made an assumption, and that assumption was wrong.”
“I was wrong in that respect.”
The acknowledgment came in the same hearing in which Savoie refused prosecutors’ request to revisit the sentence.
Roberts’s June sentencing imposed a three-month jail term, $5,000 in fines, sex-offender registration, regular drug screenings, and psychological and psychotropic therapy after her release. Two suspended five-year prison sentences would run concurrently if she violated the conditions of her release.
At her 9 June sentencing hearing, Roberts addressed Savoie, saying, according to KPLC: “I blame myself then, I blame myself today and I will blame myself for the rest of my life. I let a lot of people down, and I am the only person responsible for that.” She also reportedly apologized to the family of her victim, telling them: “I can’t give back the high school days … I can’t take away the embarrassment that so many mean people on the internet have put them through.”
The victim’s mother delivered an impact statement in which she called Roberts “a predator with hair extensions, high heels [and] Botox” and told her, “Stay the hell away from my family.”