Former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts, convicted of multiple sex crimes following a 2024 party at which she was accused of having sex with a 16-year-old friend of her son, had her 90-day sentence in the parish jail ordered by a judge Tuesday.
Judge Kent Savoie, a member of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, presided over the trial and handed down Roberts’ sentence. He served as an ad hoc district judge in the case due to the impediment of the other district judges.
Savoie sentenced Roberts to five years in prison on each count, with the sentences to be served concurrently, but suspended the sentence. Instead, he ordered Roberts to serve 90 days in the parish jail and pay a $5,000 fine.
He also ordered Roberts to abstain from drugs and alcohol, submit to random drug testing, pay monthly supervision fees and have no contact with the victim and her family. If she violates any of the conditions of her five-year probation, she will serve 10 years in prison.
State prosecutors asked that Roberts receive the maximum sentence — ten years on one charge and seven years on the other — while his defense attorneys requested a suspended sentence.
Before handing down the sentence, the judge heard victim impact statements, including the 16-year-old’s mother, two older sisters and cousin. They reported that the victim has been suffering from panic attacks since the 2024 party, has missed many classes and that they fear he will hurt himself.
“The person responsible took a lot of things from our family,” said the victim’s mother, who described Roberts as a child predator. “She will not take away our son’s future.”
His courtroom speech ended with a message to Roberts: “Stay the hell away from my family.”
Roberts also addressed the court before his sentencing on Tuesday.
“I have been living with the consequences of my actions for almost two years,” said the former mayor.
“That day, I blamed myself,” Roberts added. “I blame myself today and I will blame myself for the rest of my life.”
A Lafayette psychologist, Sasha Joy Lambert, evaluated Roberts and testified that she is at low risk of reoffending and would benefit from long-term specialized treatment.
Reading Roberts’ sentence, Savoie said he did not believe she took full responsibility for her actions. He said Roberts told the children who witnessed the crimes to lie or keep quiet, minimized their involvement and, to some extent, blamed the victim.
Although prosecutors asked the court to consider Roberts’ position of authority as mayor at the time of the crimes, Savoie said they did not do so because there was no evidence that she used her influence as an elected official. Instead, she “used her position as the only adult present” in charge of supervising the teenagers at the party, he said.
Savoie determined the sentence considering Roberts’ lack of criminal history, low risk of reoffending and sentences handed down by other Beauregard Parish judges for similar crimes, he said. He also took into account victim impact statements, lawyers’ arguments and how the crimes affected the victim’s family and Roberts’ family.
Prosecutor Charles Robinson disputed the “light” sentence and declined to comment after the hearing.
“There is no way an elected official can have sexual relations with a child and not go to jail,” Robinson said before the sentencing.
Roberts’ defense attorneys said she will not pay the $150,000 appeal bond for the 90 days she will spend in parish jail.
“She wants this to be over with,” defense attorney Adam Johnson said after the session ended. “She doesn’t want to keep this situation pending.”
Johnson and fellow attorney Todd Clemons said they were disappointed with the conviction, but realized Savoie had put a lot of thought into the sentence.
“The sentence could have been much worse,” Johnson said.
Roberts was found guilty in March. On March 3, a jury found Roberts guilty of carnal knowledge of a minor and indecent conduct with a minor, both felony counts. The six-person jury deliberated for less than an hour after five days of arguments, witness statements and presentation of evidence in the case.
Roberts was initially released on bail following her conviction while awaiting sentencing.
Witnesses testified that Roberts provided alcohol to his teenage son, his nephew and their friends during a party in July 2024, before having sexual intercourse with one of the friends.
Former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts claims the two judges in the 36th Judicial District are biased against her in her criminal case.
The 16-year-old victim testified that he was intoxicated the night of the party when Roberts told him he looked good, winked at him, danced with him, took a picture with him, grabbed him and kissed him. The victim said she felt dizzy and strange, and when Roberts said they shouldn’t continue kissing outside, she asked if they could go upstairs. The victim testified that they had sex upstairs in the game room and only later realized what was happening.
Roberts’ son, nephew and a friend testified that they went upstairs and saw the mayor and her friend having sex through the blinds of a game room window. When Roberts and the victim got out, Roberts and his son began arguing, witnesses said.
According to a victim impact statement read by Robinson, the victim’s cousin lost friendships because he “chose to tell the truth.”
“The emotional scars… extend far beyond the courtroom,” the statement read.
In her statement to the court on Tuesday, the victim’s mother said Roberts preyed on children, but instead of using a van and sweets, Roberts wore hair extensions and high heels.
“She doesn’t regret what she did,” the victim’s mother told the court. “She’s just sorry that the news came out.”
The victim’s mother said her son missed half his high school years because of the crimes, noting that he did not want to go to school and continues to be teased. A member of the opposing baseball team referred to her son as “the mayor’s killer,” she said.
Roberts resigned from elected office just days before his arrest in August 2024.
Text messages indicate that the former mayor was “scared to death,” they said.
The defense presented a case based on rumors shared by teenagers in a small town.
Johnson asked his client’s son if he actually saw his mother having sex with his friend. Roberts’ son said he couldn’t confirm it, but from what he saw, it appeared so.
Text messages between Roberts and her nephew the next day indicate that the mayor was “scared to death,” although Clemons stressed that she did not explicitly refer to having sexual relations with the boy.
A DoorDash delivery man also testified that he delivered the morning-after pill (Plan B) to a customer named Misty at the mayor’s address a few days before she was arrested.
Duncan Clanton, Roberts’ ex-husband, testified that she told him directly that she had sexual relations with the 16-year-old boy and that they were caught in the act.
During her statement Tuesday, Roberts recalled how she promised to “put DeRidder on the map” while mayor and said she hasn’t lived up to her promise the way she should have.
“What a disgrace I have been to this city,” she said in court.
Roberts said everything he did afterward was out of fear of losing his children. She asked the judge for “grace and mercy” and permission to mother her children before sentencing.
Lambert, the psychologist, said she did not observe a pattern of attraction to children based on her assessment of Roberts.
Asked whether Roberts took full responsibility for her actions, Lambert was hesitant to answer, saying Roberts only claimed to have behaved inappropriately with a minor but did not say she had sexual relations with him. The judge told Lambert that a jury heard the evidence and convicted her of having sexual relations with him, and then asked Lambert if Roberts had taken full responsibility.
Lambert’s negative response was met with applause from the packed courtroom.
Johnson told the judge that his client is not a predator and that all evidence points to an isolated mistake made during a mental breakdown. She is now registered as a sex offender and has faced public scrutiny as punishment, Johnson said. He advised the judge to ignore public pressure.
“No matter what you do, the anger will never dissipate,” Johnson said.