Larry Deen

His father, Jesse C. Deen, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1988.[2] Deen was born shortly after his parents moved to Bossier Parish. His mother, the former Evelyn Young (born 1930), is a daughter of the late Casper Callaway Young, a Bossier Parish native, and the former Cardille Jones, originally from Simsboro in Lincoln Parish. His father is a native of Grant Parish, a retired educator at the Rocky Mount School in Bossier Parish, a former member of the Bossier Parish Police Jury, and a four-term state legislator.[3]

In 1987, Deen resigned as a deputy sheriff to run against his former boss[4] and fellow Democrat, Sheriff Vol Dooley of Bossier City. Deen unseated Dooley, who was seeking a third full term in the office, 17,113 (62 percent) to 7,973 (28.9 percent). Bill Gray, a third Democratic candidate, held the remaining 2,518 votes (9.1 percent).[5] In 1991, Deen won his second term with 89 percent of the vote over another Democrat, Lillian L. Lewter of Bossier City.[6] Deen was thereafter unopposed in the elections of 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007.

From 1996 to 2001, Deen was the president of the Northwest Division of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, an agency created under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to direct federal funds to local and state law enforcement entities with the goal of making them more effective in protecting the citizenry.[7]

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Sheriff Deen provided security for a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Barksdale Air Force Base, from which Bush addressed the nation on the terrorist threat. Deen's department, along with some one hundred other patrol cars, barricaded entry to Barksdale to protect Bush from threat that did not materialize. The Bush visit and the terrorist threat subsequently propelled Deen to launch the program "Operation Exodus", which is designed to preserve vital resources in event of a catastrophe. The program depends heavily on services from retired law-enforcement personnel.[8]

In December 2003, Deen was stopped for speeding in East Texas while returning to Bossier Parish from a personal trip to Longview. An altercation with the trooper who stopped him was aired some eight months later on KTBS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Shreveport, adjacent to Bossier Parish. Deen paid an $86 ticket for driving 84 m.p.h., fourteen miles above the limit. He also issued a public apology in which he expressed "embarrassment that anything I have done caused any negative shadow to be cast on the parish."[9]

In 2008, Governor Bobby Jindal appointed Deen and his Caddo Parish counterpart, Sheriff Steve Prator, to the 27-member Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, a multi-agency program.[10]

In the 2011 nonpartisan blanket primary, Republican Julian Curtis Whittington (born January 1959), a former chief criminal deputy under Deen, won the right to succeed Deen, who decided to retire. Whittington polled more than 68 percent of the vote.[11] Whittingon's closest rival, Mike McConnell, a former deputy sheriff under Deen[4] and also a Republican, received 20 percent of the ballots cast.[11] Prior to the 2011 primary, Deen had endorsed Whittington over McConnell.[12] Deen later changed his voter registration to Republican; so did Vol Dooley.[1][13]

Deen and his wife, the former Bobbie Joe Williamson (also born 1948), reside in the parish seat of Benton.[14] Their son, Heath Calloway Deen (born 1974), resides in Austin, Texas.

In 2014, Deen and Clinton E. Blakey and Clifton D. Blakey, the owners of Blakey Auto Plex, were indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on one count of federal program theft, conspiracy to commit federal program theft, and failure to file Internal Revenue Service Tax Form 8300. The three are accused of having undervalued a vehicle at $21,375 when it was traded in to Blakey Auto Plex by the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office in May 2012, a few weeks before Deen's retirement from the position.[15] On October 16, 2014, Deen through his attorney entered a not guilty plea to the charges of federal program theft and conspiracy to commit such theft. He is allowed to remain free while he awaits trial but had to surrender his passport. The Blakeys also pleaded not guilty to the same charges along with the failure to file IRS Tax Form 8300; they two must surrender their passports as they await trial.[16]

In November 2016, former Sheriff Deen was issued a summons for simple battery after a dispute at a Benton tire store with Don Martin Whittington (1935-2017), a former Benton town council member and Bossier Parish police juror and the father of Deen's successor as sheriff, Julian Whittington.[17] The argument between the two men allegedly surfaced in regard to Julian Whittington's involvement in a since dismissed federal corruption case which closed after a major witness died under questionable circumstances. Deen is accused of having approached the senior Whittington from the rear and grabbing him. The case could result in a restraining order against Deen which would forbid him from coming in contact with the Whittington family.[18]

• Willie Waggonner, Bossier Parish sheriff from 1948 to 1976