Lafourche DA gets new second in command

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Kristine Russell, a Lafourche Parish assistant district attorney and director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lafourche, has been named the district attorney’s first assistant.

Russell is now second-in-command on the state’s 17th Judicial District prosecution team and would succeed District Attorney Cam Morvant II in the event he is forced from office.


Louisiana law grants the first assistant the same state constitutional powers as a district attorney. This includes command of every criminal charge, the authority to act as the state’s representative before a grand jury and the opportunity to be a grand jury’s legal advisor.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Russell, whose post-law school career path started in 1996 with a job Morvant’s private office. “I’ve always wanted to be a prosecutor. Other than a wife and a mom, I am a prosecutor.”

In addition to directing the child advocacy center, Russell has prosecuted sex offenders for nine years and handles most charges of sexual abuse involving children. She is also the lead felony prosecutor in Division A, one of five courtrooms.


In the state and local communities, Russell has also been visible. She has spoke at statewide conferences about Internet child-safety programs and frequently visits the parish’s classrooms to speak with students about identifying sexual abuse, such as a “Good Touch, Bad Touch” presentation.

Morvant said it was her “willingness to be involved in different aspects of the office” that made her the most-qualified candidate.

“So she’s been very active around the office, both in the courtroom and outside the courtroom,” Morvant said. “I think those are good qualities that I was looking for in someone to name as a first assistant.”


Russell will continue to prosecute felony cases in Division A and will “temporarily” assist Ben Caillouet, a newcomer to felony prosecution, with felony cases in Division B, Morvant said.

She said she would be able to handle the ostensibly increased workload with the help of a solid support staff in both felony prosecution and the advocacy center, which works in conjunction with the district attorney’s office to prosecute cases of child abuse.

Russell replaced Joe Soignet, who served as the first assistant since Morvant took office in 2003.


Soignet, who was also the lead felony prosecutor in Division B, moved out of parish to Arkansas. He will remain on staff in a part-time role, handling felony cases he has on his docket, the appellate division and media relations, the district attorney said.

The new first assistant was prominent in the proceedings against Derrick Odomes, the highest-profile case to go to trial in Lafourche last year.

Russell successfully prosecuted Odomes under the state’s habitual offender law last August, securing a life sentence for the 33-year-old who had six felony convictions at the time.


Odomes was convicted one week later of second-degree murder 19 years after a Thibodaux priest was found dead in a church’s rectory.

However, Odomes could not be given a prison sentence for the murder because he was 14 at the time of the crime and is thus protected by the juvenile protection laws the state had in place in 1992, the presiding judge ruled, making the habitual offender conviction a key element in the state’s pursuit of justice.