BATON ROUGE, La. (LOCAL 33) Woody Overton, former Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective and friend of Dennis Perkins broke his silence Wednesday.

Overton has worked on hundreds of pedophile cases, but said the Perkins case is by far the most disturbing he has dealt with as he once considered Perkins a close friend.

“He’s a master. Probably the most evil, genius mind, that I’ve dealt with,” Overton said.

Overton decided to speak out on the Perkins case due to hundreds of requests submitted for his “Real Life Real Crime” Podcast he hosts with Jim Rathmann. Both men worked with Dennis Perkins at the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and expressed they were devastated by the news of Perkins’ accusations.

Even in hindsight, with all of his experience working on similar cases, Overton says he had no idea Perkins was capable of the heinous crimes he is accused of.

“The thing that gets me the worst is what I know, and my career and the cases that I‘ve done, I feel like I should have seen something, but it wasn’t there because he is smart,” Overton said.

Overton describes his former friend and colleague as very intelligent, and overall a great law enforcement officer.

“Every day when he strapped on that badge, and that gun, hes thinking in his mind, I’m smarter than everybody, I’ve got them all fooled.. and he did,” Overton said.

Overton describes Perkins’ alleged actions as a “preferential pedophile.” “They will push a little bit, they will try and see if they get any kind of resistance they are going to stop because they are smart,” Overton said.

“Think about how much training Denny got over the years, on how, the latest techniques law enforcement is using to catch the offenders, he knows it all,” Overton said.

According to public records obtained from the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, Perkins was a certified rape defense instructor.

Overton hopes that Perkins will somehow hear his message.

“Besides me saying that he is dead to me, I hope he can find an ounce of honor inside himself, to take himself out of the situation where these kids don’t have to go to court,” Overton said.

Overton’s podcast Real Life, Real Crime will drop a special episode on Saturday featuring more insight to the Perkins case.