BROTHER GATHE TO BE FIRST PRESIDENTIALLY APPOINTED AFRICAN AMERICAN U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

In Baton Rouge

U.S. President Joe Biden recently selected Brother Ronald Gathe, Jr., 46, as the first presidentially appointed African American United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Brother Gathe would succeed Brandon Fremin, who had been the Trump administration’s appointee until he resigned at the end of February with the Biden administration planning to appoint a replacement. Ellison Travis has been serving as the interim. He will also be the first Black person nominated by a president for the position in the Middle District of Louisiana. The district was created in April 1972.

Brother Gathe, a graduate of Xavier University and Southern University Law Center, has spent the last two decades working as a prosecutor for parish district. He spent 19 years as an assistant district attorney in East Baton Rouge Parish and since January 2021 has been the chief of trials for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which encompasses the parishes of Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and West Baton Rouge.

The U.S. attorney for the Middle District essentially acts as the federal district attorney for a nine-parish area: East Baton Rouge, Ascension, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana. The office has 60 attorneys and support personnel.

Brother Gathe, also an adjunct professor at Southern University Law Center, is vice president of membership for the National Black Prosecutors Association. He was previously the group’s national treasurer and a regional director and started the association’s Louisiana chapter. S