Ford E. Stinson Jr.

Ford Edwards Stinson, Jr. (born November 7, 1952), is an attorney who is a retired chief judge from Division B of the 26th Judicial District Court for Bossier and Webster parishes in northwestern Louisiana.^[1] First elected to the judgeship in 1996, Stinson, a Democrat, did not seek a fourth six-year term in the primary election held on November 4, 2014.^[2]

Background

A Benton native, Stinson is descended from a pioneer Bossier Parish family. His father, Ford E. Stinson, also a lawyer, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1940 to 1944 and again from 1952 to 1972.^[3]His mother, the former Edna Earle Richardson, was the first woman in Bossier Parish to serve as the foreman of a grand jury.^[4]

Stinson graduated in 1970 from Benton High School, at which he has been the public address announcer at football games since 1986. He subsequently graduated in 1974 from Louisiana State University and in 1977 from the LSU Law Center in Baton Rouge. He was honorably discharged at the rank of captain from the United States Army Reserves. He is a member of the bar associations of Louisiana, Bossier and Webster parishes, and Shreveport. He is affiliated with the nonpartisan American Judicature Society and the National Association for Court Management. He is a past member of the executive committee of the Louisiana District Judges Association.^[5]

Judicial career

Prior to his election as district judge, Stinson practiced law from 1977 to 1996 and was the Bossier-Webster Chief Indigent Defender.^[5] In his initial nonpartisan blanket primary to choose a successor to retiring Judge Graydon K. Kitchens Jr., of Minden in Webster Parish, Stinson finished a strong second to the Republican candidate Whitley Robert "Whit" Graves (born October 1954) of Bossier City, who led a four-candidate field with 9,687 (32.1 percent). Stinson received 9,610 votes (31.8 percent). The remaining but critical 36 percent of the ballots were cast for two other Democratic candidates, Mike Boggs and Robert R. "Randy" Smith.^[6] In the general election held at the same time as the Clinton-Dole presidential race, Stinson defeated Graves, 26,406 (55.9 percent) to 20,846 (44.1 percent), while Clinton polled more than 52 percent of the vote in Louisiana statewide.^[7] Stinson was unopposed for his second and third terms in 2002 and 2008. In 2004, he was named chief judge of the 26th Judicial District.^[4]

Stinson is married to the former Suzanne Harper (born November 1961), who was until 2014 the judicial administrator for the 26th Judicial District. In 2009, she was named national president of the National Association for Court Management. The Stinsons traveled to Boston for her to be sworn into the position.^[8] From 1979 to 1982, she was a member of the Louisiana National Guard. In January 2016, Mrs. Stinson was appointed to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana.^[9]

Stinson has three sons, attorney Ford Edwards Stinson, III (born February 1977), educator Brian Andrew Stinson (born April 1980), and attorney Douglas Matthew Stinson (born July 1982), from a previous marriage to Cynthia Stinson Kilpatrick (born February 1952) of Shreveport; she is now married to Ricky Lane Kilpatrick (born c. 1961).^[10][11]In 2012, District Attorney Schuyler Marvin of the 26th Judicial District named Douglas Stinson an assistant DA for juvenile cases ranging from disorderly conduct to armed robbery.^[12]

His court colleagues included another retiring judge, John M. Robinson, as well as Parker Self, who succeeded Stinson as Chief Judge in 2015, Mike Nerren, and Michael Craig. Judge Jeff Cox served on the 26th Judicial District Court too until 2017, when he joined the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit.

Jeff R. Thompson, a Republican former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Bossier City, ran unopposed in his bid to succeed Judge Stinson in the election held on November 4, 2014.^[13]

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