Jeff Landry
Jeffrey Martin Landry, known as Jeff Landry (born December 23, 1970), is the elected attorney general of his native U.S. state of Louisiana.
| Jeffrey Martin "Jeff" Landry | |
 | |
Attorney General of Louisiana
| |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 11, 2016 | |
| Preceded by | James David "Buddy" Caldwell, Sr. |
|---|---|
U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district
| |
| In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Charlie Melancon |
| Succeeded by | Charles Boustany |
| Born | December 23, 1970 St. Martinville Louisiana, USA |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Sharon LeBlanc Landry One son |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
He was earlier a freshman one-term Republican in the 112th Congress for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. He succeeding Democrat Charlie Melancon, who stepped down to run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against Republican David Vitter. Landry served with honor as a Desert Storm veteran, having achieved the rank of sergeant. He received the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, a National Defense Ribbon, an Overseas Training Ribbon, and the Louisiana War Cross from his eleven years of service as a member of the Louisiana National Guard.
Landry has a Juris Doctor of Law degree from Loyola University New Orleans and was a small business owner. Prior to his election to Congress, he was a former state Senate aide, a sheriff’s deputy in St. Martin Parish, and a police officer in the Village of Parks.
Landry was unseated in 2012 through reapportionment. He was pitted against fellow Republican Representative Charles Boustany, a retired physician from Lafayette, Louisiana, who relinquished the seat in Januar 2017 after a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 2016 against the eventual winner, Republican John Neely Kennedy. Kennedy filled the seat that Vitter vacated to return to private life.
He waged a comeback to win the office of attorney general in the general election held on November 21, 2015, in which he, a lifelong Republican unseated the incumbent James David "Buddy" Caldwell, Sr. (born 1946), a Democrat-turned-Republican. Since his election as attorney general, Landry has been in frequent legal disputes with the Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. Early in 2018, Landry announced that an agreement had been reached with the governor's office about control of Louisiana's lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.[1] Altogether, Landry has taken Edwards to court six times and prevailed each time.
On March 27, 2018, Landry announced that because of a lack of evidence that could be brought to a grand jury no charges will be brought against two white Baton Rouge police officers in the fatal shooting in July 2016 of the African-American Alton Sterling. Landry noted that federal authorities had declined to bring charges, and East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore had recused himself because of a personal tie to the family of one of the officers involved. The officers claim they gave Sterling an opportunity to surrender upon arrest but fired when Sterling grabbed a gun in his possession. Rioting followed Sterling's death. Still pending is a civil suit filed on behalf of the five Sterling children against the officers and the city-parish of Baton Rouge. The suit accuses the police department of lax training and poor procedures whicn contributed to Sterling's death.[2]
Landry is married and has one son. In February 2018, he broke six ribs in a snowboarding accident caused by whiteout conditions while on a family vacation in Montana. Doctors said he will require six week for recovery though Landry has been working from his home in Broussard in Lafayette Parish.[3]
References
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedsnowboarding - ↑ M. L. Nestel. Police won't face charges in Alton Sterling shooting case. ABC News. Retrieved on March 27, 2018.
- ↑ Jeff Landry recovering from broken ribs after snowboarding accident. The Shreveort Times (February 20, 2018). Retrieved on February 21, 2018.