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

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. …