Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after July 2024 sexual assault at pool party

The former mayor of a Louisiana city has been convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy during a party at her house while she was still in office.

Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after a jury in the municipality of DeRidder on Tuesday found her guilty of two felonies: carnal knowledge of a juvenile – or statutory rape – as well as indecent behavior with a minor.

In October, in an unrelated case, her 40-year-old brother, Brandon Lee Roberts, pleaded guilty to raping two people: an underage girl and a young woman. He subsequently received a 42-year prison sentence.

  • saimen@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Interesting how in this case it’s clearly called “raped a boy” and not “had sex with an underage man”.

    • Schadrach
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      I mean, it’s much more often called “a romp” or “an affair” when it’s a female predator and a young male victim. Usually the r word is reserved for female victims. Hell, one of the experts who did a bunch of the foundational work in studying SA in an interview about a decade ago balked at the idea that men could be victims of women at all.

      Epstein’s friends get softened language because they’re rich and powerful. Women usually get softened language by default. I wonder what made her so awful for this to be reported as a “rape” and not a “romp”?

      • orioler25@lemmy.world
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        It’s interesting that you concluded with “this must be an exceptionally violent case” and not “culture is shifting enough that explicitly calling these cases ‘rape’ is becoming more acceptable.” Like, we’re in the middle of a moment where sexual violence against minors is, y’know, a big topic. Even if the past ten years hasn’t been huge in the proliferation on sexual violence education, the ruling class pedo ring thing is pretty fresh.

        • Schadrach
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          It’s interesting that you concluded with “this must be an exceptionally violent case” and not “culture is shifting enough that explicitly calling these cases ‘rape’ is becoming more acceptable.”

          Cynicism. Well founded cynicism. Though if this is the beginning of a trend and not a one-off I’ll be happy to see it.

          • orioler25@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            What do you mean, “well founded?” Did you read this article before writing that? Are you telling me you read a lot about sexual violence and rape culture? That’d be pretty nice to see on here, could you point me toward any articles that have done discourse analyses on the representation of sexual violence and young men?

            Or you meant “well founded,” as in, like, its what you see so it makes sense?

  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    In October, in an unrelated case, her 40-year-old brother, Brandon Lee Roberts, pleaded guilty to raping two people: an underage girl and a young woman. He subsequently received a 42-year prison.

    I was going to joke how it’s “all in the family” but this goes to show how the law treats female offenders different than their male counterparts. In much of the western/anglophone world, we’ve come to associate sex abuse with men engaging in sexually predatory behavior; little thought is given about women committing sexual offenses since many are (sadly) the victim of such offenses. We’ve also come to see unbalanced age dynamics (younger man-older woman) as something of a rite of passage for men. If a guy loses his virginity with an older woman, he “scored” or got “lucky.” If the roles were gender-swapped, it would rightly be considered assault but the assailant would receive a much higher sentence than the woman.

    We have stop treating sexual assault as one-sided.

    • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
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      The sentences are very different (7-10 years to 42 years), but to be fair, the crimes are also different.

      1 time might be a “mistake”, 2 times is a trend. Also, I don’t know the specifics. I know children are not legally able to consent to sex with an adult, but I would punish harder in the case that the child doesn’t even “consent” to it. Maybe the boy “consented” and the girl didn’t. Also, I assume the “young woman” is an adult, so she definitely didn’t consent.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    2 days ago

    Disclaimer: Put on a tinfoil hat.


    The only reason this is all over the news is unfortunately not because it’s a despicable crime. Which it is.

    However. The story is that: She turned herself in. They were intoxicated by alcohol. She’s hot for 40 year old. She’s “independent, blablabla. both sides”.

    No, no, no!

    The media is showing this because they want to normalize rape.

    There’s something a lot worse that never make the news.

    Maybe it’s the drug epidemic, causing this shit to happen on daily basis in the southern states. Maybe it’s people of importance who don’t turn themselves in. Maybe it’s not the alcohol or libido at all.Maybe it’s the …

    Maybe it’s in the Epstein files.

  • MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Can someone confirm or deny, with a reliable source either way, whether she’s a Republican?

    (I fully expect her to be one but don’t want to assume.)

    • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      She was identified as independent in her profile from what I can tell. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t really Republican by most standards as a small town mayor so close to Kansas. Her LinkedIn profile has her following the Koch Holding Company also. I don’t know, I don’t think she effectively accomplished anything in her stint in mayor enough to say she wasn’t an independent. End of the day I guess it doesn’t really matter, I was actually surprised her LinkedIn is still out there like nothings happened.

  • cøre@leminal.space
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    3 days ago

    She rapes a 16yr old boy. Her brother rapes an underage girl. They’re both underage, both are pedophelia, yet the boy gets reported differently than the girl.

    Brother and sister are both rapists, that’s fucked up family there. Wonder how many dad and mom have raped.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        and people are moving into tiny homes: trailers for those who can’t afford wheels.

        • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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          Posting live from a 40 year old trailer filled with rat shit. Realest realtor in the housing crisis. Ya boy Tron Bronson

            • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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              Yes. Because it didn’t fit well in the “cross out” ftfy type of meme response I was doing.

              That’s why I made it clear by explicitly writing it for you in my reply. You jumping to “white genocide” says a lot more about you than me. America has a long history of white supremacy and none of “white genocide”.

              The “white problem” someone, withany understanding of American history, should assume is the problem with white supremacy; that the country has had since its literally inception.

  • edgarde@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Is almost everyone like this and we just didn’t know? Or is our political class just dominated by people like this?

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      People who want to do stuff forbidden to the public look for positions of power.

      Some of this stuff is good like taxing rich people and requiring car companies to put seat belts in vehicles.

      A lot of these ambitions are bad: pedophilia, cruelty, torture, corruption, selling off public assets, building strip malls, etc.

      • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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        In this case she was drunk, and clearly regretted what she did so much she turned herself in even though she could get away with it if she just didn’t.

        So I don’t believe she looked for a position of power in order to be able to do it.

    • Reyali@lemmy.world
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      It’s been a few years since I read it, but the book The Sociopath Next Door did a lot to inform how I think of this.

      In the book, the author gives the stat that about 4% of the population are sociopaths, which is defined as people who lack empathy and a conscience. She explains that often, sociopaths highly crave success, but posits that what defines “success” is largely dependent on one’s culture.

      In the US, success usually looks like having a lot of money, fame, and/or power, so: actors, politicians, CEOs, etc. And when one doesn’t have empathy, that makes it easier to step on others in order to achieve that success. She explains that in other cultures, like in India, success is more about how one fits into and supports their community. So while they have the same driving motivation (success), the steps to achieve it are wildly different.

      Based on that, I say with confidence that “almost everyone” is NOT like this. However, sociopaths are significantly more likely to become those who are rich, famous, and powerful. And this kind of abuse doesn’t phase sociopaths because they don’t have empathy.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        I think the ven diagram is an almost a complete circle with the rich. You don’t become a billionaire by caring about others.

        • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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          I think one of the Walton kids grew a conscious and started donating that vast fortune. Instead of taxing we just have to wait generations for the kids to care or lose the money gambling or something

          • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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            So weird being in a place that looks vaguely like Reddit but people don’t have an aneurysm when you point something like that out. The expected response was “tHiS iSn’T eNgLiSh ClAsS” and reporting me.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      No, these people are rare. The problem is that their impact is outsized. One person can harm many over the course of several years. It doesn’t take a lot of bad actors like this to cause a lot of harm in society.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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      I think to seek out power you have to be one of two kinds of people

      1. You truly want to change the world for the better

      2. You want power over others

      2 is IMO by far more common and I’m not surprised that those kinds of people don’t see rules applying to themselves and also like dominating people.

      Like… I’m also horny and kinky… I’ll go as far as saying that I think I’d call myself a dom switch. But I don’t see the appeal of doing it with kids or even teens. Even when it comes to Computer numerical control Consensual non-consent, it just… isn’t attractive if it’s not actually consensual. When we’re done with it all, I want to cuddle up with my partner for a breather, have a shower together and then go back to being equal partners who support each other through life. Most of all, I want her to enjoy it more than I do.

      But these people, it seems they want to actually subjugate people for real. Maybe not this mayor, she had sex with a 16 year old boy who likely in some jurisdictions could’ve been considered consenting. Hell I would’ve done it at his age (now that I’m older, I do of course realize that SHE should’ve still known better, as the adult). But I think a lot of these people in power actually enjoy causing pain and misery to those who can’t resist.

      • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        They wouldn’t let a well intentioned human within 500 miles of Washington DC. That’s the point of a two party system.