In defiance of Landry, public defender board votes to investigate layoffs

by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
March 20, 2025

The Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board voted Wednesday to review layoff notices given to five chief public defenders, despite a request from Gov. Jeff Landry to hold off on taking that action. 

Christopher Walters, Landry’s deputy executive counsel, asked the board to pause its decision until after Landry could meet with the five people who are at risk of losing their jobs. The board, whose members are mostly Landry appointees, proceeded to set up a committee to investigate their alleged terminations anyway.

“I think the purpose of the hearing is to find out what is actually happening,” said retired Judge Paul deMahy, one of the governor’s appointees who will chair the board’s five-member review committee. deMahy did not set a date for the hearing during Wednesday’s meeting. 

The vote was 8-0-1 to conduct the job review, with board chairman and retired Judge Gerard Caswell, an appointee of Louisiana House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, abstaining from the decision. 

The five embattled chief defenders asked the board for the review. They allege State Public Defender Rémy Starns violated their rights to free speech by firing them. 

The affected chief defenders include Brett Brunson in Natchitoches Parish, Michelle AndrePont in Caddo Parish, Deirdre Fuller in Rapides Parish, Trisha Ward of Evangeline Parish and John Hogue, who works in Tensas, Madison and East Carroll parishes.

Starns sent letters three weeks ago informing them he would not renew their contracts in July. 

They have been among the most vocal critics of Starns’ plans to personally control more of the public defender system. The five testified in front of public defender boards and state lawmakers multiple times over the past few years in opposition to Starns’ proposals. 

In total, there are 37 chief public defenders in Louisiana. Their jobs entail managing local judicial district public defender operations, hiring attorneys and sometimes personally working cases.

Public defenders represent nearly every criminal defendant in Louisiana. In fiscal year 2022-23, 88% of people charged with crimes relied on a public defender, according to a state public defender financial report. Collectively, they had approximately 142,000 clients that year.

Since 2021, Starns has sought to increase his authority over the compensation and the hiring of those chief public defenders. He became the state public defender in 2020 when former Gov. John Bel Edwards was in office, and Landry reappointed him to the position last year. 

In 2024, Starns and Landry gained legislative approval for a law that transferred more authority over public defenders from the board to Starns’ position. 

On Wednesday, Caswell used that new law to initially argue against holding a board hearing over the Starns’ dismissals. He said the board is now weaker and doesn’t have the power to force Starns to renew a district defenders’ contract against Starns’ will. 

“We don’t know what district defenders are doing their job and are not doing their job,” Caswell said, adding, “The old law gave this board lots of power. The new law took lots of that power away.” 

Starns pushed to diminish the state public defender board’s power after the previous board adopted a standardized compensation plan for chief public defenders in 2023 that he opposed. He repeatedly called the board’s salary formula “an abomination” and complained it was too generous.

Yet the new public defender board has refused to undo the old compensation plan despite Starns’ urging.

Last year, the current board voted twice to keep the original salary structure for chief defenders in place over an alternative Starns presented. Board members said they were uncomfortable with Starns’ plan because it would cut some chief public defenders’ pay by several thousand dollars. 

On Wednesday, the board was scheduled to debate the competing compensation plans for a third time, but it delayed that discussion at the urging of Landry’s office. 

While they agreed to put off decisions about compensation, board members felt more urgency about pushing forward with a review of the five alleged terminations. They said state law forced them onto a timeline that includes a committee hearing in the next 30 days. 

Adrejia Boutté, a board member who Landry and private defense attorney organizations appointed, also fears the public defender board could be eliminated altogether during the Louisiana Legislature’s lawmaking session that starts in April. 

In a legislative hearing last week, Starns suggested lawmakers replace references to a state public defender board with the name of his office in state law, which could further diminish or eliminate the board.

“It’s very possible that this board will not exist after the [legislative] session,” Boutté said.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

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