Louisiana sheriff retires after pleading guilty to beating podcaster who often criticized him

Bobby Couvillion Photograph: WWL Louisiana View image in fullscreen Bobby Couvillion Photograph: WWL Louisiana Louisiana sheriff retires after pleading guilty to beating podcaster who often criticized him Randy Smith’s resignation was part of plea deal after attack on podcaster Bobby Couvillion at a Madisonville restaurant A suburban New Orleans sheriff who had held one of his community’s most prominent political offices for a decade has retired shortly after pleading guilty to battering a podcaster who often criticized him. Randy Smith, 61, also agreed to serve more than a year of probation after admitting to a late May beating at a steakhouse where he had bought 18 alcoholic beverages on his tab on a Friday afternoon – which all but halted his four-decade policing career. Smith had been sworn in as the elected sheriff of St Tammany parish, Louisiana , on 1 July 2016, succeeding a predecessor who eventually pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and was separately convicted of serial child sexual molestation. As sheriff, Smith helmed the law enforcement agency, which operates the local jail and patrols the neighborhoods of an area with 280,000 residents about 50 miles north of New Orleans . And he was well into his third, four-year term in that role when he stopped by Keith Young’s Steakhouse in the St Tammany town of Madisonville on 29 May and encountered a local social media personality named Bobby Couvillion, according to state investigators. Couvillion – who blogs and podcasts about local topics – had been frequently critical of Smith, including by calling the sheriff corrupt and incompetent. And that day, Smith was said to have approached Couvillion from behind while the latter man was seated on an elevated stool at the restaurant bar celebrating his 59th birthday with his wife. Smith then, without warning, placed Couvillion in a chokehold and slammed him to the ground backward, authorities later alleged. View image in fullscreen Randy Smith. Photograph: WWL Louisiana Citing accounts from the victim and multiple eyewitnesses, Smith also reportedly punched and with his boots kicked a prone Couvillion in the face and body. “I’m going to kill you, you motherfucker,” Couvillion reported Smith saying. “You’re a dead motherfucker.” Deputies of Smith were the first to respond to multiple emergency calls from within the restaurant that reported the beating. But their office recused itself from handling the matter when it became evident that the suspect in the case was the sheriff, and agents with the Louisiana bureau of investigation (LBI) then took over. Beside interviewing bystanders and securing surveillance video, LBI agents wrote in a sworn statement that Couvillion had been taken to a hospital. Medical records showed he had sustained a concussion and two displaced front teeth, the agents said. They also noted that there were five glasses of wine, four vodka martinis, eight vodkas and one gin on Smith and his party’s $346 tab. Agents arrest