DERIDDER — Former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts has been released from jail following a 90-day sentence after she was convicted of raping a 16-year-old while she was in office, The Guardian reports. 

The outlet reports that Roberts, 44, finished her sentence on Monday. This comes one week after a judge rejected a request from prosecutors to force her to serve a harsher sentence.

Judge Kent Savoie based Roberts’ sentence on a list of more than 30 cases resolved through plea deals, unlike her prosecution, which culminated in a jury trial and guilty verdict, The Guardian adds. 

“I asked someone to get me a list of cases similar,” the judge said at an Aug. 31 court hearing, a local outlet cited by The Guardian notes. “I made an assumption, and that assumption was wrong. I was wrong in that respect.”

Roberts initially faced up to 17 years in prison after jurors convicted her of carnal knowledge of a juvenile – colloquially known as statutory rape – and indecent behavior with a minor in March.

Prosecutors said that she sexually assaulted the teen boy while they drank alcohol at a pool party at her home in July 2024. 

Shortly after this, she was arrested on third-degree rape and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She also resigned from her role as mayor, WBRZ reported in August 2024.