The Public Defender Association of Louisiana convened an emergency meeting March 7 to discuss in response to emails sent to district public defenders on Feb. 27 by State Public Defender Remy Voisin Starns advising five district public defenders their contracts would not be renewed for fiscal year 2026 and requiring the remaining 32 district public defenders to schedule individual meetings to review their contracts.
The district defenders who face non-renewal of their contracts have a combined 115 years of public defender experience. They are John Hogue (6th Judicial District, East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas Parishes), Michelle AndrePont (1st Judicial District, Caddo Parish), Brett Brunson (10th Judicial District, Natchitoches Parish), Deirdre Fuller (9th Judicial District, Rapides Parish), and Trisha Ward (13th Judicial District, Evangeline Parish). The 32 remaining District Defenders whose contracts are under review service the remainder of the state.
All five district chiefs who stand to lose their contracts are appealing those decisions with the Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board. They argue they were fired without just cause and not given reasons for the non-renewal of their contracts, according to letters they wrote to the board. In those letters, they all said they believed the firings are at least partly retaliatory.
