Sherb Sentell to return to
district attorney's office
By Vickie Welborn • vwelborn@gannett.com • July
31, 2010
MINDEN — After a nine-month absence, attorney
Sherb Sentell is returning to work with the Bossier-
Webster district attorney's office.
Sentell will be assigned as a prosecutor in Minden
City Court in mid-August. He'll work there at least
four months, maybe longer, before being allowed to
do felony work in Webster District Court, District
Attorney Schuyler Marvin said.
"But he will not be in a management position, and he
will not be the head of the office or anything like
that as he previously served," Marvin said.
Sentell, who is also an officer in the U.S. Army
Reserves, resigned in October a week after his arrest
for domestic abuse battery and public intimidation.
Sentell was accused of grabbing and pushing his
wife during an incident at a Bossier City casino that
was caught on surveillance cameras. Bossier City
officers handcuffed and arrested him even though
Sentell's wife, Julie, who was not injured, asked that
he not be arrested. It was obvious from the tapes
that Sentell had been drinking.
While in the patrol car, Sentell is videotaped in a
profanity-laced rant in which he also dropped
names of attorneys and elected officials. The officers
said Sentell threatened their jobs. The officer and a
reserve lost their jobs. However, the officer
appealed and was later reinstated.
In January, the state attorney's office declined to
prosecute Sentell, saying there was no merit to the
charges. Julie Sentell also asked the attorney
general's office not to prosecute. In a statement
released days after her husband's arrest, Julie
Sentell called the incident a "private disagreement
between two married people."
"He got exonerated by military, the attorney general
and the (Louisiana Bar Association). Everybody
looked into it and he got a pass. He is a good
prosecutor "» and I think the whole defense bar
would agree to that and anybody who walks in the
courthouse would agree to that," Marvin said,
adding that he believes the embarrassment of having
the entire incident recorded and viewed by
the public is punishment enough. "He is a really
good prosecutor, and I just don't think he needs to
be punished anymore."
In city court, Sentell will be responsible for
prosecuting misdemeanor state law crimes such as
DWIs and marijuana cases. But he'll take on other
work as needed.
Sentell had been employed with the district
attorney's office 10 years before his resignation.
He held the position of chief felony prosecutor.
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