Clay Higgins, the man popularly known as the ‘Cajun John Wayne,’ was sworn in Wednesday as a reserve deputy for the Lafayette, LA, city marshal.

KATC-TV, quoting an unnamed spokesman for the Marshal’s Office, said Higgins will assist in the office’s daily duties and will participate in all training exercises that deputies are required to have.

Higgins, who became an Internet sensation for his work as the St. Landry Parish Crime Stoppers spokesman, left the St. Landry Sheriff’s Office last month after controversy erupted over a video he produced at the behest of State Police.

St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said he had continuously asked Higgins to “tone down his unprofessional comments.”

Nevertheless, Higgins remained popular and, at his news conference announcing his resignation, said: “I would die rather than sacrifice my principles. I would leave my wife without a husband, my children without a daddy, rather than kneel to the very forces of evil that I have so long stood against.”