PDO rep, Chez Hope staff address city council

16th Judicial District Defender Cecelia “Beanie” Bonin spoke at the Franklin City Council meeting as a guest on Tuesday evening to discuss the condition of the district’s Public Defender’s Office.
She requested that the Franklin community come together to support the office legislatively. The Public Defender’s Office, which spans across St. Mary, St. Martin and Iberia Parishes, houses 18 attorneys, most of whom are part-time and getting paid $14,000 per year.
Bonin’s role as a lawyer is to represent “the people who don’t meet the economic ability to afford private attorneys. Bonin admits that her attorneys and their assistants are “not doing the best job because the people that are working hard (are) working for much less than what a regular attorney would work for.” With adequate funding, Bonin says, her staff could work to the best of their abilities.
Also Tuesday, Director Cherisse Picard and Tammy Rogers of Chez Hope announced their organization’s 14th annual trivia night, which will be hosted at 5 p.m. on April 1 at the Patterson Civic Center. The St. Mary Parish community donated door prizes and items to put for a live auction. Tickets are $120 for a team of six.
Picard said the organization was asked to extend Chez Hope’s services to Iberia and St. Martin Parishes. She opened the first office in Iberia Parish last Monday.
St. Martin Parish Sheriff Ronny Theriot also donated office space for Chez Hope. Picard hopes to open a domestic violence shelter in the place of SNAP, a New Iberia shelter that closed down, within the next year.