Grim-faced former Louisiana mayor Misty Roberts arrives in court for sentencing after being found guilty of having sex with son's teenage friend

The disgraced Louisiana mayor facing up to 17 years in prison for seducing an underage boy at her son's birthday party arrived at court on Tuesday for sentencing.

Mom-of-two Misty Roberts, 44, was found guilty of felony charges of indecent behavior and carnal knowledge of a minor at her March retrial and faces up to 17 years behind bars. 

Dressed in a dark gray top, black pants, and heels, she kept her head down and said nothing as she walked inside.

The one-time civic stalwart is now a Tier 1 registered sex offender and a pariah in tiny DeRidder - where appalled former constituents have dubbed her 'Messy Misty.'

A week-long trial heard how Roberts threw a wild 2024 pool party where she drank heavily, stripped into a skimpy orange bikini and pounced on her son's best friend.

The brazen cougar was busted by her own teenage kids who peered through a crack in a window and caught a glimpse of the 'lewd and lascivious' romp.

Defense attorney Adam Johnson admitted a snatched photo of Roberts straddling the 16-year-old victim was a 'real bad look' but said there was no proof of a sex crime.

However, jurors took less than an hour to convict the blonde divorcee of violating the teen boy - who told the court: 'While it was happening, I couldn't feel my body.'

Roberts's first trial had ended in a mistrial.

She was denied a third by the Louisiana Court of Appeal, paving the way for today's 10am sentencing in front of Judge Kent Savoie at the Beauregard Parish courthouse.

Roberts was elected the first female mayor of DeRidder - population 9,800 - in 2018 and won a second term in 2022.

She was still in office when she hosted the raucous July 20, 2024, birthday bash that would bring about her unedifying fall from grace.

The reckless mom messaged her son asking what he wanted to drink before stocking the fridge with alcohol for his pals.

With the party in full swing, she began to press her butt against the boy's best friend, stroking his torso and posing for a flirty photograph.

The court heard how the petite predator began to 'make out' with the intoxicated teen who was so drunk that he was later spotted throwing up.

She whispered 'we can't do this here' before luring the victim away from the pool to a spare room where she exposed her breasts and pulled down his pants.

'I was kind of dizzy,' the boy said of the ensuing sex. 'I had to put my hands on the couch. My eyes were just like closed.'

Roberts' antics had not gone unnoticed by revelers who tried to peek inside the room to see what was happening.

The ex-mayor's daughter would tell investigators that she saw the pair 'on top of one another.'

Her brother said he saw the hookup through a crack in a window although he later admitted he couldn't be certain.

Another youth managed to take a photo on his cell phone.

'A lewd and lascivious picture is worth a thousand words, and that was what was uncovered,' prosecutor Charles Robinson told jurors, showing them the sordid image.

Roberts sought shamelessly to shift blame on to the victim, urging her enraged son: 'Go fight your friend. He's the one who did it.'

Another witness was ordered to 'lie 'til you die.'

The victim's mom reached out to Roberts afterwards via text to ask: 'So no protection. Are you on birth control?'

Roberts replied: 'Birth control. But, it also didn't reach that point in those few minutes to have that concern … I can assure you of that.'

A local DoorDash driver told the court, however, that he delivered emergency Plan B contraception to her home.

The shamed politician confessed to her shocked ex-husband Duncan Clanton, the father of her children.

'I need you to deny it, please,' she wrote to him, as rumors swirled in the southwestern Louisiana town where Clanton's face adorns billboards promoting his insurance business.

Roberts resigned days before her August 2024 arrest for third degree rape, a charge that was switched to indecency with a child and carnal knowledge of a child, both felonies.

Her attorney blamed the ex-mayor's repulsive behavior on her 2022 divorce, claiming it caused her to spiral.

'It would not have happened without alcohol,' Johnson said. 'Trying to be the cool parent in a divorce is stupid.'

He argued that cops had failed to prove that a sex crime happened or properly scrutinize differing accounts from various youths - but jurors weren't buying it.

Clanton, 43, has not commented on his ex-wife's downfall but he made his feelings clear in text message exchanges filed in their long-running divorce and custody spat.

'You really are cold blooded. Just wanted you to know what a real piece of s**t you really are,' he wrote to her months after their split.

In August 2022 Clanton messaged again to say: ''You're the one who f****d a cop and had an affair. You have no room to talk about morals.'

Their two children have lived with Clanton since December 2024, according to filings, and Roberts can't see them without his permission.

That same year he begged a judge to step in when his ex-wife started dating a new man Clanton claimed was a dangerous and suicidal alcoholic.

'I am fearful for my children's safety because William Andrew Cronce does have access to weapons/handguns, he is bold enough to publicly voice/threaten suicide and has shown stalking behavior with the mother of my children,' Clanton wrote in January 2024.

He didn't need the restraining order because 38-year-old Cronce was found dead three weeks later.

The cause of his death has not been disclosed.

Roberts is not the only member of her family facing a lengthy incarceration for sex crimes.

Last November, her brother Brandon Lee Roberts, 40, was handed a 32-year stretch for raping two young women, one of whom was aged 13 when the abuse began.