Maggie Dixon was perhaps the most influential woman journalist of 20^th Century Louisiana.  She was the managing editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate from 1949 until her death in 1970.  She was an active Democrat who championed prison reform, assistance to the mentally ill, and organized labor.  She was born in New Orleans in 1908, obtained her bachelor’s degree from LSU in Baton Rouge in 1928, the same year she began her career as a reporter.  She often advised Governor Earl Long on press and political strategy.   She has been credited for earnestly talking up prison reform when no one else was giving it a thought.  She was a person who demonstrated the pen to be more powerful than the sword as no other person constructed more words with a pen that meant more to more persons.  She pioneered in many areas but on the subject of Angola, she was the State’s conscience.  For her work on prison reform, the Department of Corrections named its first satellite prison facility after her – Dixon Correctional Institute at Jackson, Louisiana.

Margaret Richardson Dixon (posthumously)

Robert D. Downing

Judge Downing graduated from LSU in 1971 and obtained his Juris Doctorate in the summer of 1975.   That year he began his career as an attorney in Alexandria.  In 1978 he joined a firm in Baton Rouge and began his own private practice in 1984.  He became District Court Judge in 1985 and held that position until 2000.  He began his judgeship on the First Circuit Court of Appeal on January 1, 2001.    In 1986, he was instrumental in creating a new concept in the area which made vocational education a requirement of probation.  The pilot program was so successful that it was featured in “People” magazine in February 1988 and on the “Geraldo” show that same year.  He helped introduce Toastmasters into the Louisiana Prison system.  A man of devout faith, he introduced the Picture Bible into Angola and other Louisiana prisons.  The Picture Bible is now being used as a literacy tool.  He participates in Prison Fellowship, having taught “Going for the Gold” for many years, a program which teaches inmate goal setting and survival skills.  He is a frequent speaker on the subject of crime and its prevention and is known also for his active community service.

Hunt Downer graduated in 1968 from Nicholls State College and obtained his Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola in 1972.  General Downer began is military career as an enlisted solider, United States Army Reserves, in 1968.  He later joined the Louisiana Army National Guard.  He assumed duties as the Assistant Adjutant General on September 1, 2001.  He serves as the principal assistant to the Adjutant General for all Army National Guard issues.  He is also responsible for assisting the Adjutant General in all matters pertaining to the supervision and management of the Louisiana Department of Military Affairs, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.  At the request of the Governor, he has been detailed as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  General Downer served 28 years (seven terms) in the Louisiana House of Representatives.  During his tenure at the legislature, he served as Speaker Pro Tempore’ and Speaker of the House.

Brigadier General Huntington B. “Hunt” Downer

Cheney C. Joseph, Jr.

There may be no individual alive today in Louisiana that has served in so many different and important positions in the legal occupation.  He graduated cum laude in 1964 from Princeton, and obtained his Juris Doctorate in 1969 from LSU.  He began his career in the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s office, served as an Assistant Professor at the LSU Law Center, served as a United States Attorney for the Middle District, served for 8 years as Professor and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, served East Baton Rouge Parish as first assistant District Attorney and District Attorney, Judge Pro-Tempore for the 16^th and 40^th Judicial Districts, served as Executive Counsel to Governor Mike Foster, and currently serves as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at LSU, a position he has held since 2000.  During his career on the law faculty, Professor Joseph has served as Reporter for Louisiana Law Institute’s Committee for Continuous Revision of the Louisiana Criminal Code and the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure.  He has been appointed by the Supreme Court of Louisiana to serve as Executive Director of the Louisiana Judicial College (which provides continuing legal education for the Louisiana judiciary) and to serve as Co-Reporter for the Louisiana Criminal Jury Instructions Advisory Committee.

Ms. Debra K. Mack is a native of New Orleans.  She attended Dillard University where she received a bachelor of arts in political science with a secondary focus in Spanish.  Later, she earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola.  Prior to entering duty with the FBI, she was employed as a public defender with the New Orleans Indigent Defender Program.  She also practiced law with a New Orleans law firm providing legal defense in civil matters and taught business law at Dillard University and Georgia State University.  She began her investigative career as Special Agent in 1983.  Ms. Mack has served in the FBI’s Atlanta, Buffalo and Newark Field Offices.  He has investigated organized crime, drug violations, and white collar crime.  She also served as a New Agent Counselor, providing guidance to Agent trainees at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.  On February 1, 2005, Ms. Mack was promoted to Special Agent in Charge, Mobile Field Office (one of two African American females to ever head an FBI Field Office at that time).  She is responsible for more than 100 Agent and support personnel and has oversight of all FBI’s operational, investigative, and administrative matters as well as all technical operations and financial issues for the southern half of Alabama, which includes 36 counties.  Agent Mack is committed to working with the people of south Alabama to build a better community for all. 

Debra K. Mack

Sheriff Randy Maxwell

Formerly a State Trooper for 19 years, Sheriff Randy Maxwell was appointed to sheriff of Concordia Parish on August 31, 1990.  He is a veteran of the United States Army and served in the Military Police.  Sheriff Maxwell is very active  at the local, state, and national levels in law enforcement, corrections, and community affairs.  He serves on the La. Sheriff’s Association Executive Board and is a member of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement.  He sat, along with three other Louisiana sheriffs, on the Department of Corrections committee to establish guidelines governing all prisons and jails in Louisiana.  He serves as state chairman of the DARE Advisory Board, serves on the Executive Board of the Red River Delta Priority Committee, is a member of the Louisiana Coordinating Council on Domestic Violence and the Louisiana Community Policing Institute, Chairman of the Louisiana Peace Officers Standards and Training Council.  Under Sheriff Maxwell’s leadership, the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office has grown from a small civil and criminal staff and a small parish jail operating under a deficit posture, to a staff of approximately 250, with two accredited correctional facilities.  He takes great pride in the unparalleled services his office provides the community, as well as the excellent and varied rehabilitative programs offered inmates at the two correctional facilities in Concordia Parish.

Considered to be one of the best known and most remarkably accomplished attorneys in Cajun Country, he is a leading activist for the preservation of Cajun culture.  In 1988, after his youngest son asked him what the Acadians had done wrong to be expelled from Nova Scotia, he embarked on an amazing journey of researching the issue from a historical and legal perspective.  Perrin singlehandedly brought a petition before the British Crown in 1990 resulting in the signing of the Queen’s Royal Proclamation apologizing for the 1755 expulsion of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia. He serves as president of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) and of the Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation. He is the Founder/Director of the Acadian Museum in Erath.  He is considered an Honorary Ambassador of the State of Louisiana to European countries for both French and legal matters.    Since 1979, Perrin has been an adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.  He was the co-founder of the Francophone Section of the Louisiana Bar Association and the Babineaux International Civic Law Symposium.  Perrin’s work in promoting the French culture has elevated him to the pantheon of leading cultural activities and has helped to reinvigorate the Cajun pride movement through his Petition for an Apology, the establishment of the Acadian Museum, and his many ongoing CODOFIL activities.

Warren A. Perrin

Michael A. Ranatza

At age 24, Michael was elected Harahan Chief of Police, the youngest police chief ever elected in the State of Louisiana.  For the past 23 years, he has served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, having been appointed by five Governors to serve in this position.   Throughout his career he has worked with all segments of the criminal justice system on the state and national level.  He has a powerful reputation for bringing parties of similar interest together to achieve common goals.  Recent accomplishments include working to establish a homicide investigation training program to promote the cross jurisdictional sharing of information on cold cases; establishing an internal affairs training program; the redesign of the crime victims reparations program; establishment of a crime victim notification system; establishing a school resource officer program to provide a safe learning environment for elementary and secondary students.  After his on the ground experience with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita he began work to establish a statewide inmate classification system that facilitates the rapid evacuation and tracking of jail inmates; the development of a local criminal justice regional information hub capable of backing up vital information systems and data from criminal justice agencies.   His unique approach in identifying and obtaining financial assistance and other resources has resulted in great success for the State of Louisiana in all segments of the criminal justice system

This very respected district court judge seems to be an “icon” of sorts to the New Orleans community.   He graduated from Tulane University in 1962 and obtained his Juris Doctorate in 1964.  He immediately began to practice law, with an emphasis in criminal law, and continued to do so until 1972.  He was elected as Judge of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court and was sworn in on January 1, 1972.  He was later elected as Chief Judge of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court and was sworn in on January 1, 1993..  Judge Winsberg has served on numerous statewide and local committees dealing with problems and issues in the criminal justice system.  She served on the Legislative Committee to investigate the laws pertaining to “insanity acquittees” as well as the Louisiana State Law Institute Committee investigating the laws surrounding bail in the State of Louisiana.  He is a former faculty member of the University of New Orleans for 27 years, teaching Political Science in a course entitled “Current Issues in Criminal Justice”.  He retired from Criminal District Court on January 2, 1996, but continues to accept Ad Hoc Judge appointments for the Louisiana Supreme Court since his retirement, having over 100 appointments to date.

Judge Jerome M. Winsberg

This remarkable family continues to leave a lasting impact on Louisiana. 

            Justice Jeanette Theriot Knoll was the first female ever elected to the State Appellant bench.  From 1972 to 1982 she served as first assistant district attorney for the 12^th Judicial District and at one time served as a criminal defense attorney for indigents in Avoyelles Parish.  She was elected to the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeal in 1982 and was re-elected in 1993.  She was elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court and took office on January 1, 1997. 

            Jerold Edward “Eddie” Knoll , at age 29, was the youngest man ever elected as a District Attorney  in Louisiana.  Eddie served as District Attorney for the 12^th Judicial District from 1972-2003.  He was born in Simmesport, Louisiana, obtained his BA from LSY A&M in 1963 and obtained his Juris Doctorate from Loyola in 1966.  Her served as President of the Red River Delta Law Enforcement District from 1975 – 2003; has served as Vice-President and President of the Louisiana State and American Bar Associations. 

            The Knolls are the parents of five fine sons, Triston K, Jerold E. “Eddie” Jr., Edmond H. “Sonny”  Blake, and Jonathan, three of whom are practicing attorneys with their father in Marksville.