Man’s Foot Fetish Results in Sexual Assault Conviction
September 8, 2025
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on September 4, 2025, a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated for two hours before finding 47-year-old Bobby Mendell Bester of Slidell guilty of sexual battery. Assistant District Attorneys Hank Meyer and Iain Dover presented the case to the jury with Judge John Keller presiding over the trial.
According to testimony during the trial, the Slidell Police Department received a report in March of 2018 regarding a sexual assault having occurred at a nursing home on Robert Boulevard. Upon arrival, responding officers spoke to the facility’s administrator who directed them to a 69-year-old resident. The resident told the officers that Bobby Bester, who performed janitorial services for the facility, had entered her room while she was lying in bed. She said Bester commented about one of her socks having fallen off her foot and offered to put it back on for her. Bester closed the room’s door and window blinds. He produced some lotion and massaged the victim’s feet while asking her if she was ticklish. He began tickling her feet and pressed her feet against his genitals several times. Whenever footsteps were heard outside the room, Bester stopped what he was doing.
Detectives obtained a warrant for Bester’s arrest but efforts to locate him were unsuccessful. Bester was eventually arrested six years later in February, 2024. Upon being questioned, Bester acknowledged having a foot fetish but denied the accusation made against him by the victim.
In addition to the victim appearing before the jury, prosecutors also called another woman to the witness stand. The second woman recounted how she was working as a real estate agent in the Northshore area in 2007 when the defendant called her, posing as a potential buyer. After several phone conversations, the defendant told the woman he actually was not interested in buying any real estate but was instead interested in taking her out to dinner on a date. The woman politely declined and asked the defendant not to contact her again. However, the defendant continued to repeatedly call the woman, one time leaving a recorded message that the woman later provided to law enforcement. In the message, Bester says, “Can I (masturbate) on your feet? I know you got sexy feet. Can I just suck on it or something?” On another occasion, Bester told the woman over the phone “I like that pink toenail polish you have on.” Being that she was wearing open-toed shoes and pink toenail polish at that moment, the woman became concerned the defendant was following her and reported the defendant to the police.
Judge Keller set Bester’s sentencing for October 23, 2025. Bester faces between 25 and 99 years in prison.