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VIDALIA, La. — A former K9 officer and Concordia Parish deputy has been sentenced to three- and one-half years confined at hard labor in the Louisiana Department of Corrections last week for charges of indecent behavior with juveniles and carnal knowledge of juveniles.

Anthony “Tony” Godbold was sentenced for the charges on Wednesday, July 24, in Seventh Judicial District Court by Division B Judge John Reeves after Godbold changed his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” of the charge of indecent behavior with a juvenile and made a “best interest plea” to one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Two additional counts of indecent behavior with juveniles and four additional counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile were dismissed, court records show.

A best interest plea means that the defendant does not confess to the charges or admit guilt to any offense, but agrees that a guilty plea is in his best interest and can be sentenced while still disagreeing with the prosecutor’s description of events.

On Oct. 25, 2023, Reeves sentenced Godbold to five years in the Department of Corrections with three years suspended with three years of post-release supervision. Godbold previously pleaded guilty to distribution and possession with intent to distribute Schedule I and Schedule II controlled substances while other charges he’d been served with, including malfeasance in office, introducing or possessing contraband into a parish jail and distribution and possession with intent to distribute Schedule III controlled substances were dismissed.

The three-and-one-half-year sentences that Godbold received on Wednesday for one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile run concurrently with each other and run concurrently with the two-year jail sentence that Goldbold had already received for his prior drug conviction.

Reeves also ordered that Godbold “receive any and all rehab he may qualify for” and recommended that he be qualified for the work release program, court records show. Godbold is also given credit for any time served from the date of his arrest, which was in October 2022.

When asked if he was satisfied with this outcome, Assistant District Attorney Joey Boothe, who prosecuted Godbold’s case, said “I’d be much more satisfied if he hadn’t done these things.”

“This is not a job you do for joy but we just do the best we can to obtain justice,” he said. “In the end, I think he’d have had a much more severe sentence had he not pleaded guilty and gone to trial and probably deserved it but we have to do what is in the best interest of the process.”

Godbold had previously declined the offer of a 20-year sentence without the benefit of parole when pleading not guilty to the charges.

Another ex-deputy, John William Cowan, was charged by the Attorney General’s Office around the same time as Godbold with carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with juveniles and obstruction of justice.

Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office began investigating allegations of crimes against minors in December 2022 and turned over the investigation to the Attorney General’s Office when it was learned that the two men accused were formerly employed by CPSO as deputies.

Godbold was dismissed from Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office in 2022 after being arrested for introducing contraband into the jail and malfeasance in office. Cowan, who has not yet been sentenced, was no longer working at CPSO when he was arrested in March of 2023.