Former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in parish jail after being convicted of multiple sex crimes tied to a 2024 party involving her son's 16-year-old friend. Judge Kent Savoie, filling in as an ad hoc district judge in the 36th Judicial District, suspended five-year prison terms on each charge and ordered Roberts to serve the jail time instead.
The sentence brought a close, at least for now, to a case that has followed Roberts for nearly two years and now leaves her under tight supervision. She also must pay a $5,000 fine, stay away from drugs and alcohol, submit to random drug screens, pay monthly supervision fees and have no contact with the victim or his family. If she violates probation, she will serve 10 years in prison.
Roberts had asked the courtroom for mercy before sentencing. “I have sat with the consequences of my actions for nearly two years,” she said. “I blamed myself that day, and I blame myself today, and I will blame myself for the rest of my life.” Her defense team had sought a suspended sentence, while state prosecutors pushed for the maximum punishment of ten years on one charge and seven years on another.
The victim’s mother and three other relatives gave impact statements before Savoie ruled. She told Roberts that the person responsible took many things from their family and would not take their son’s future, then ended with, “Stay the hell away from my family.” Family members said the teenager has suffered panic attacks, missed a lot of school and worried about harming himself since the 2024 party.
Savoie said he did not believe Roberts had taken full responsibility for what happened. He said she had told children who witnessed the crimes to lie or stay quiet, minimized her role and, in some respects, blamed the victim. At the same time, psychologist Sasha Joy Lambert testified that Roberts posed a low risk of reoffending and would benefit from specialized, long-term treatment. The judge said he considered that opinion, along with her lack of prior criminal history, the victim impact statements and other sentences handed down in similar Beauregard Parish cases, but he rejected the idea that she had fully owned her conduct.
Roberts was mayor of DeRidder at the time discussed in the sentencing hearing, and the case had reached a legal dead end before Savoie could impose punishment because the other district judges recused themselves. Her prison term is now suspended, but the real test begins after the 90 days in jail: five years of probation, strict conditions and the possibility of a 10-year prison term if she slips.
