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.

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 arrested Smith on 4 June in connection with one count of second-degree battery and two others of disturbing the peace. They later additionally arrested a bail bondsman named Gregory Saurage on allegations that he pointed Couvillion out and encouraged the sheriff to assail the podcaster.

Saurage was also alleged to have said that he drove Smith away afterward in his office vehicle at the sheriff’s request, according to a sworn statement from investigators.

Once he posted a $10,000 bond after his arrest, Smith issued a written apology to his constituents that avoided naming Couvillion – but clearly referred to him.

“I have ignored hundreds of personal attacks directed at me by an individual who hides behind a computer screen,” Smith’s apology said. “His actions were direct and intentional.”

A half-dozen local judges ultimately recused themselves from presiding over Smith’s case. Nonetheless, on Wednesday, Smith walked into the courtroom of St Tammany state judge Reginald Badeaux and agreed to plead guilty to felony second-degree battery and misdemeanor disturbing the peace by public intoxication in exchange for between 15 and 18 months of probation.

He also announced that he would retire as of the afternoon, capping off a career that saw him spend a total of 33 years at the St Tammany sheriff’s office.

St Tammany district attorney Collin Sims said Smith vacated his position as a term of his plea deal with prosecutors. For his part, Smith maintained that he decided to retire after “much thought and consideration”.

Smith, who also served as the chief of the police department in the St Tammany city of Slidell for six years beginning in 2010, said his chief deputy Bret Ibert would be acting sheriff in the short-term.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ibert said his sole focus was on providing “stability, continuity, and leadership” until St Tammany voters could elect a successor for Smith.

That elected successor would assume the reins of an agency whose fiscal books were reportedly $60m in the green as of the end of June 2025. And many St Tammany officials were hopeful that Smith’s retirement would boost the prospects of a ballot measure on Saturday asking parish voters to renew an existing tax, which generates more than $13m annually for the sheriff’s office.

Sims told reporters on Wednesday that Smith’s guilty plea was an important public reminder that “everyone will be held accountable for their actions, regardless of your title”.

“We didn’t want to have special treatment of the sheriff,” Sims said. “We treat him like we treat every other citizen that commits an act like that.”

Notably, five years before those comments, Sims had secured child rape convictions against former longtime St Tammany sheriff Jack Strain that for him resulted in life imprisonment.

Couvillion, meanwhile, issued a statement on Wednesday saying he was “grateful … that justice was not swept under the rug simply because of who was involved”.

Katie Moore and Danny Monteverde of Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana contributed reporting