NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release – September 4, 2007

For More Information, Contact: Greg Galle, Campaign Coordinator, 504-908-5782, or Delia A. Taylor, APR, Media Consultant, at 225-931-0286 or taylormedia@bellsouth.net

Experienced Prosecutor Buddy Caldwell

Qualifies for Louisiana Attorney General

Caldwell Pledges to Restore Integrity and Credibility to the Office

BATON ROUGE, La. – North Louisiana District Attorney James D. “Buddy” Caldwell qualified today (Sept. 4) to run for Louisiana Attorney General in the October 20 State Primary Election.

Caldwell, a 61-year-old Democrat, has represented the people of East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes for nearly 30 years. He pledges to restore integrity and credibility to the state’s top law enforcement office.

“Our state needs an Attorney General who will not abuse the power that the people of Louisiana have entrusted to that office, but rather, serve the public and work to protect their well-being. I have the knowledge, experience and personal integrity to once again make the Attorney General’s Office a trusted and effective public office,” Caldwell says.

Caldwell charges that incumbent Charles Foti has repeatedly exhibited a disregard for the law and unethical conduct that has wrongly humiliated and harmed thousands of people and cost the taxpayers of Louisiana millions of dollars.

In particular, he notes that a federal court on Sept. 13-14 will review a $10 million class action suit settlement against Foti for ordering more than 50,000 strip searches of people arrested in Orleans Parish between 1996 and 2003. These people were charged with misdemeanors, such as minor traffic violations. Court records show Foti ordered blanket strip searches – even body cavity searches – despite the fact that the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to stop, and the U.S. Federal District Court on three occasions ordered him to stop.

The Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office must now pay the victims for the damages caused by Foti’s abusive actions. Legal interest on the award settlement could push costs for taxpayers to nearly $12 million, pending the timeliness of the federal magistrate’s ruling.

“Charles Foti’s ‘above-the-law’ attitude and disrespect for human decency has hurt people and senselessly cost our state millions of dollars that could be going toward fighting crime and improving the quality of life of our people,” Caldwell says.

Foti also has spent more than $1 million to recklessly prosecute Dr. Anna Pou for the deaths of hospital patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A grand jury refused to indict Dr. Pou earlier this year; however, Foti has since waged a personal retaliatory campaign by releasing sealed court documents to national media outlets and publicly attacking the jury’s legal decision.

“His conduct is unbecoming of a legal professional, and he stands to once again put the office and the people he was elected to represent in jeopardy of paying the high costs for his unscrupulous actions,” Caldwell says.

Caldwell has long been respected for his knowledge and practice of the law. In fact, he has already been assigned and personally handled more Attorney General cases for the state than the current and all past living attorneys general combined.

Caldwell has achieved a 99-percent conviction rate over his 29 years as a prosecutor. He has personally prosecuted every murder, rape and armed robbery handled by his office during this time. He holds the highest per capita collection rate for back-child support in the state. He helped to establish pre-trial diversion programs for adult and juvenile first-time offenders, and he has actively supported and supplied funding for the indigent defenders program in his judicial district.

Caldwell has assisted in conducting numerous legal training workshops and conferences for attorneys, other district attorneys, assistant attorneys general, sheriffs, chiefs of police and school boards on a variety of legal matters. His depth of legal knowledge includes specialized fields, such as civil board representation, grand jury matters, state and federal reapportionment, judicial ethics, crime scene investigations and hospital service districts. Caldwell is the only state official to be a noted expert speaker for 20 consecutive years on matters relevant to the state’s justices of the peace and constables.

Caldwell resides in Tallulah with his wife Pat. Together, they have seven children and six grandchildren.

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