Criminal Prosecutions Increase
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
The size of St. Landry Parish’s criminal docket has continued to shrink during the past three years, District Attorney Chad Pitre told members of the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club on Tuesday.
According to Pitre, who was elected as DA in 2021, his prosecutorial staff presided over 2,120 convictions and 38 felony trials through 2024.
In 2025 Pitre said his staff successfully convicted the defendant in a January double murder trial, while on Tuesday, the DA’s Office also successfully prosecuted an aggravated theft case.
Pitre credited the increased number of convictions of the DA’s Office to hiring three additional prosecutors shortly after he was elected.
“We hired additional prosecutors and criminal investigators in order to make our office more efficient. We also doubled our victims’ rights staff, who make sure that they are with victims’ families through the whole court process,” Pitre added.
In 2024 Pitre said the parish DA’s Office was presented with the Leadership of Law Enforcement Award, emblematic of the top DA’s Office statewide.
The award carried a $40,000 monetary award that Pitre said he gave to his staff.
Law Enforcement Training
Pitre said much of his community outreach effort has been directed on providing better law enforcement training for officers in the smaller jurisdictions of St. Landry.
The DA’s Office said the court preparation efforts are attempting to better prepare officers who will probably be required to testify during criminal prosecutions, Pitre said.
Pitre pointed out that the DA’s Office has continued to align with the Sheriff’s Department in order to continue community outreach efforts to provide crime prevention guidance for elderly residents.
Juvenile Crime
Youths ages 12-14 are the most at-risk age group for juvenile crime, said Pitre.
Pitre did not delve into parishwide juvenile crime statistics. However, Pitre added the DA’s Office plans to partner with Hope For Opelousas, an organization that Pitre said has been successful in providing after-school mentoring to school-age youths beginning in first grade.
Crime Drop
The Rotary Club entertained a March presentation by the Opelousas Police Department which the department hierarchy claimed that their efforts to reduce citywide criminal activity has been succeeding.
“I can’t confirm the (OPD) statistics, but regardless, (crime) is still too high,” Pitre said.
Pitre said half the Acadiana-area juvenile criminal activity is gang-related.
School Truancy
Pitre said the DA’s Office is open to prosecuting truancy cases, but his prosecutors have received no alleged truancy case files from St. Landry Parish school officials.
“If we receive the files from the school system, then we will prosecute,” said Pitre who added most of the student truancy issue is rooted in parental neglect.
State-funding for truancy prosecutions, Pitre added, was redirected three years ago from the DA’s Office to the school system, who are in charge of documenting students who are chronically absent from classes.
