Political newcomer Chad Pitre won election as 27th Judicial District Court district attorney with 52% of the 39,138 votes cast in Tuesday’s election.
Pitre defeated incumbent Charles Cravins, who ran as a Democrat.
There was a 64.8% turnout for the parishwide election, according to unofficial results on the secretary of state’s website.
Cravins was appointed district attorney by Earl Taylor, who retired in February after 23 years in office.
Pitre has served as a special assistant attorney general with Attorney General Jeff Landry since 2016.
Pitre also has served as an assistant district attorney under Taylor handling cases in district and city courts. Pitre stated he specialized in civil law representation of local and regional governmental entities, including federally funded programs; drainage and water rights law; public finance law; open meetings law and FOIA requests,
Pitre also has a law office specializing in governmental affairs law; environmental regulations and permitting; residential and commercial real estate transactions; property law, Business entities and criminal defense.
Pitre also stated he served a law clerk with Judge James Genovese.
Pitre stated he has served as general counsel for St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz since 2006.
Pitre also served from 1992 to 1996 as a wildlife enforcement agent for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
From 1987 to 1989 he stated he was a reporter for the Baton Rouge Advocate covering local government.
In a campaign statement, Pitre said, “Change is needed in leadership at the St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s office. There’s almost 6,500 felony backlog cases that have not yet gone to trial. 42 of those are homicide cases and those numbers are unacceptable. To make matters worse, they are over 6,500 victims and victims families who have received no justice. It’s time for a change and the problem is not in law enforcement. St. Landry Parish law enforcement officers are some of the best in Louisiana, the problem is a lack of prosecution.”