ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Residents in St. Tammany Parish voted Jack Strain to the top in 1995 when he won the race for sheriff. He was reelected four times.
"It is rewarding to our agency and humbling to me," Jack Strain said in 2011.
In 2015 he lost the election and since then, the residents he once served have watched the fall of their former sheriff who showed up to federal court Wednesday in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.
He pleaded guilty in a federal corruption case. Last month, a jury found him guilty of 8 counts of sex crimes involving juveniles including aggravated rape and aggravated incest.
"It was a long time coming," Terry King said. He is on the investigation team with the group, Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany.
Unlike during his two-week-long trial in Covington last month, none of Strain's family members showed up to the federal courthouse in New Orleans Wednesday. Strain pleaded guilty to a bribery charge involving a kickback scheme tied to an inmate work release program.
"It was a nice thing to see in there. I would have loved to see all the evidence in the case but he pleaded guilty and we’ll take that," King said.
Strain will be sentenced in the state sex abuse trial on Jan. 18. He faces life in prison for those crimes. He'll be sentenced in the federal corruption case on March 9. For that case, he faces a maximum of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. Because he will be sentenced on the state level first, Strain will likely serve both sentences in state prison.
Strain spent his 59 birthday Sunday in the Plaquemines Parish jail where he’ll remain until sentencing.
Strain's federal trial was set to begin on Dec. 6 but has been canceled as a result of his guilty plea.