UPDATE: Defense team files writ pausing former DeRidder mayor’s trial

Published 5:30 pm Wednesday, January 28, 2026

The defense for former DeRidder mayor Misty Roberts Clanton filed a writ to stay, or temporarily pause, proceedings on Tuesday.

Clanton’s attorney, Adam Johnson, made the oral request while jury selection was underway Tuesday morning, and the confidential filing now awaits an opinion from Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal.

Clanton, who resigned from office in July 2024, was indicted in October of that year on charges of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The charges were amended in April 2025 to reflect a felony count of indecent behavior with a juvenile.

In June, Clanton’s defense team was granted a request from the Louisiana Supreme Court to recuse both judges of the 36th Judicial District in Beauregard Parish, Martha O’Neal and C. Kerry Anderson.

The Honorable D. Kent Savoie, Ad Hoc, was selected to preside over the trial.