Racist Louisiana Sheriff Arrested For Rape And Incest
Former longtime St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain – for months the subject of a federal corruption probe and state investigation into sex crimes against juveniles – has been booked on charges of rape and incest, District Attorney Warren Montgomery announced Tuesday (June 11) at a hastily-called news conference.
Strain – who served as police chief in Abita Springs before winning election as sheriff and holding onto that job for 20 years through June 2016 - was arrested by Louisiana State Police on Tuesday morning and arrived at the St. Tammany Parish jail in Covington later in the day. He was charged in a grand jury indictment with two counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated incest, indecent behavior with a juvenile and sexual battery, Montgomery’s office said.
He was being held in the parish jail in lieu of $400,000 bond on Tuesday afternoon.
The diabolical sheriff, 56, is accused of committing sex crimes against four different victims, including two under the age of 12, according to the indictment. The pedophile's attorney Billy Gibbens was not immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The incestuous child rapist is accused of committing aggravated rape against one victim between June 1, 1979, and July 19, 1980, and against another victim between Jan. 1, 1975, and Sept. 8, 1981, the indictment shows. Strain would have been 12 years old in January 1975.
The former sheriff is accused of committing aggravated incest on a third victim and committing indecent behavior with the same victim, all between April 1, 1996, and July 1, 2002. In addition, he is accused of committing aggravated incest and sexual battery against a fourth victim on or about June 1, 2004.
Montgomery said his office was presented with evidence in the fall of 2017 by Louisiana State Police, the FBI and the IRS that Strain had engaged in sex crimes. Over the next 18 months, his office conducted an investigation that also included the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, leading to Tuesday’s grand jury indictment in Covington.
“Mr. Strain deserves a speedy trial by an impartial jury, and I will make sure he is given a fair trial,” said Montgomery, who did not take questions from reporters at the news conference on the steps of the parish courthouse in Covington.
Shortly after the news conference, Sheriff Randy Smith, who defeated Strain in the 2015 election, issued a statement, saying the allegations are “disgraceful and shocking.”
A source with direct knowledge of one of the cases confirmed to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in December that the North Shore district attorney’s office was investigating claims of sexual abuse involving Strain. The source, who asked for anonymity in order to publicly discuss the case, said the investigation also was probing allegations involving four to five alleged victims and that some of the abuse dates back to before Strain became sheriff in 1996.
Louisiana State Police said it concluded its investigation into the sex crime allegations in January.
The investigation of sexual abuse involving Strain first surfaced publicly in December reports by WWL-TV and The New Orleans Advocate.
The Advocate quoted unnamed sources as saying the people who claimed to have been abused by Strain were teens when the alleged abuse occurred, the report said.