Deputy, oenophile, wordsmith, linguist, cook

By JIM MUSTIAN The Daily Iberian

When Russell James Hebert was 3 years old, his godfather began calling him "Toby" after the family hunting dog because he would sit around and eat out of his scraps.

The nickname stuck, and 69 years later, everyone at the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office knows the new chief deputy as Toby Hebert.

"Nobody calls me Russell except my wife," Hebert says behind a thick pair of glasses and a large, white mustache.

The story seems befitting considering Hebert spent so many years on the streets hunting for drugs and criminals. But even after 40 years of experience, law enforcement is just a portion of who he is.

Hebert, 72, is a wine connoisseur, a wordsmith and an avid foreign language learner. He reads voraciously, though only nonfiction, and will cook any and all Cajun dishes.

"We enjoy being his guinea pigs," said Mark Tullos Jr., director of the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a good friend Hebert's. "He enjoys experimenting with new foods."

Tullos called Hebert "a great conversationalist," adding "he never tells the same joke twice."

At the sheriff's office, Hebert enjoys near-legend status and is settling in to the position of chief deputy quite well, said Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal, Hebert's boss and friend of almost 50 years.

Hebert was appointed chief deputy in January when former chief deputy Earl Robichaux Sr. entered into semiretirement and began working about three days a week. Hebert previously led the internal affairs division.

"He has to be the man with the iron fist," Ackal said. "He's got to call shots that are unpopular sometimes within the department. He can handle everything, anything that comes at him."

Ackal continued: "He's a perfectionist. He doesn't want to leave anything to chance. Toby comes with a tremendous amount to his credit in law enforcement. He's taken a tremendous load off of me."

Hebert says he has big plans for Iberia Parish. One way Ackal said Hebert can help is by molding young deputies, and Hebert, a pre-Miranda police officer accustomed to fake names and phony accents, has just about seen and done it all.

Born and raised in Gueydan, a tiny town east of Lake Arthur in southern Vermilion Parish, Hebert went from cowboy to cop in just a few years. After high school, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and arrived in Korea toward the tail end of the Korean War in 1953.

He then spent two years in Okinawa, Japan, before returning to Louisiana and joining Louisiana State Police in Lafayette. Hebert said he soon became the state police's first undercover narcotics agent and began buying marijuana and heroin on the streets of New Orleans. He would help in forming a narcotics team in state police known as "The Dirty Dozen," a club Ackal later joined.

Hebert would work the streets in one city until his cover was compromised after he made too many busts. All the while, he attended night school at various universities, including Tulane. Hebert eventually made his way to Pagosa Springs, Colo., where he served 12 years as undersheriff, a capacity similar to chief deputy.

But Hebert later decided to return to his roots.

"I went into boudin withdrawal," he said with a guffaw, referring to the Cajun sausage.

Upon his return, he spent three years in the internal affairs division in the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office before transferring to Iberia Parish.

In some ways, Hebert's life has resembled a marathon. But he likes it that way. Hebert, a gambling man, says he loves the adrenaline rush and the risk afforded by his job.

He says he has no plans to get out anytime soon.

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Information from: The Daily Iberian, http://www.iberianet.com">http://www.iberianet.com