Mildred Methvin

Mildred Ellen Methvin, known as Mimi Methvin (born October 24, 1952),[1] is an American attorney and alternative dispute resolution mediator who works in Lafayette, Louisiana.[2] From 1983 to 2009, she was the United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Louisiana. Between 2011 and 2013 she served as part-time U. S. Magistrate Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the District of Maryland. In July 2014, she was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to serve as Judge Pro Tem of the Louisiana 27th Judicial District Court, Division D, in St. Landry Parish following the sudden death of Judge Donald Hebert. She served until Judge Hebert's replacement was elected and sworn in in January 2015, approximately six months. Methvin is one of few judges who have served on both the federal and state benches. She has also worked in all three branches of federal government: as a congressional aide, as an Assistant U. S. Attorney, and as a judge.

Mimi Methvin
Judge of the 27th Louisiana District Court Acting
In office July 14, 2014 – December 31, 2014
Preceded by	Donald Hebert
Succeeded by	Jason Meche
Personal details
Born	Mildred Ellen Methvin October 24, 1952 Alexandria, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	James McManus (1988–2005)
Children	2, 3 stepchildren
Education	Tulane University (BA) Georgetown University (JD)

Background

Named for her maternal grandmother, Mildred Rosalind Hill Cunningham (1901-1982), Methvin is descended from a pioneer political family with roots in Natchitoches, Castor, and her native Alexandria, Louisiana. Her maternal great-great-grandfather, Milton Joseph Cunningham, was a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature and for three terms prior to 1900 the Attorney General of Louisiana.[3] Her great-grandfather, Charles Milton Cunningham, was the editor of The Natchitoches Times and a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1915 to 1922.[4][5] A great-uncle, William Tharp Cunningham, served one term in the Louisiana House of Representatives from Natchitoches Parish from 1908 to 1912, prior to becoming a judge.[6][7]

Her grandfather, W. Peyton Cunningham, husband of the former Mildred Hill, was a lawyer and a member of the Louisiana House from Natchitoches Parish from 1932 to 1940.[6][8] Her father, DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr., an Alexandria lawyer prominent in both legal and civic circles, served as a member and first Chairman of the Louisiana Board of Ethics for Elected Officials (1972-1981). Her mother, Lallah Hill Cunningham Methvin (1929-2012), was the daughter of W. Peyton Cunningham[9] and the first wife of DeWitt Methvin and the mother of his five children, including Mildred Methvin's four siblings.[10] Her paternal grandmother, Myrtis Methvin, a native of Attala County in central Mississippi, was from 1933 to 1945 the mayor of Castor in Bienville Parish in northwestern Louisiana and the second woman in Louisiana history to serve as a town mayor. Her paternal grandfather, DeWitt Methvin, Sr. (1894-1975), was also a Mississippi native, a timber salesman, and a member of the Bienville Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body.[11]

Methvin was reared in Alexandria and spent her formative period as well on Cane River Lake in Natchitoches with her Cunningham family members. Raised Roman Catholic, Methvin received the American Legion Award upon her graduation in 1970 from Holy Savior Menard Central High School in Alexandria. She then attended H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans for three years before enrolling in Tulane University Law School her senior year. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa upon graduation from Newcomb in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. The summer before law school, she was an intern in the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. Representative Gillis Long. Methvin later transferred and received her law degree in 1976 from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.[2]

Legal career

While in law school in the District of Columbia, and for one year after graduation, Methvin worked in the office of Democrat United States Representative Gillis William Long of Louisiana's 8th congressional district, disbanded in 1993. She subsequently worked from 1977 to 1979 as an associate attorney for her father's law office, Gist, Methvin, Hughes & Munsterman in Alexandria, the Gist being Howard B. Gist, Jr. From 1979 to 1981, she was an assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport. In 1983, Methvin was named United States Magistrate Judge, with jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases, including violations of federal game law, for the United States District Court in Lafayette.[12]

In 1990, Methvin was organizational chair of the American Inns of Court of Acadiana and in 1995 president of that organization.[13] In 1996, she helped found a second Inn, the John M. Duhe, Jr. American Inn of Court. In 1997, William H. Rehnquist, then Chief Justice of the United States, appointed Methvin as one of only three magistrate judges in the country to the select committee which makes national policy governing the activities of federal magistrate judges. Magistrate Judge Methvin presided over numerous civil jury and non-jury trials as well as felony pretrial matters, including arraignment, bail, and detention hearings. She accepted guilty pleas, issued search warrants and arrest warrants, and selected grand jury members. She successfully settled close to a thousand civil cases during her tenure, and sentenced thousands of defendants under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the National Wildlife Refuge Act.

In 2009, after 26 years, Methvin left the bench to open her own conflict resolution office in Lafayette, which she still maintains. She opened a solo law practice in 2012. From 2011 to 2013, Methvin served part-time as a Recall U.S. Magistrate Judge for the federal courts in Pennsylvania and Maryland. In July, 2014, she was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to a nearly six-month tenure as interim judge of the Louisiana 27th Judicial District Court based in Opelousas in St. Landry Parish. She succeeded Judge Donald Hebert, who died in office.[14]

Methvin was one of two attorneys for Patricia E. Powell (born August 1952),[15] a former teacher at Tioga Elementary School in Tioga in Rapides Parish. In 2016, Powell won a judgment of $1,147,732, plus interest and court costs against the Rapides Parish School Board on grounds that her 2001 dismissal was unjust retaliation for published comments that she had made about a former short-term Rapides superintendent, Betty Cox. The award was solely for lost wages and retirement benefits. Judge Thomas Yeager of the Louisiana 9th Judicial District Court said that Powell was not afforded "a hearing at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner" and was "the victim of political retaliation." Powell was fired under former Superintendent Patsy Jenkins. None of the school board members at the time are still serving.[16] In May 2018, the Louisiana Supreme Court in New Orleans upheld Powell's judgment. She could collect some $2 million from the school board including costs and interest.[17]

Congressional race

Methvin was a Democratic candidate in the 2018 nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 6 in Louisiana's 3rd congressional district for the seat held for the past two years by Republican Clay Higgins, who was seeking a second term. When filing her qualification papers, Methvin ridiculed Higgins as "less Cajun John Wayne and more Cajun Barney Fife," a reference to the hapless deputy Barney Fife played by Don Knotts on the classic 1960-1968 situation comedy, The Andy Griffith Show. Methvin argues that Higgins' votes in Congress for the Donald Trump agenda are often cast against the interests of the constituents. Two African-American Democratic candidates, Verone Thomas and Larry Rader, are also in the race, as are another white Democrat, Rob Anderson of DeQuincy, and a second Republican, Lafayette attorney Joshua Slavone "Josh" Guillory (born January 8, 1983), who carries the support of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.[18]

Methvin said that she was seeking the congressional post because of her frustrations over events in the nation's capital: "Just watching what is happening in Washington, D.C., with the attacks on our democracy and observing so many of our representatives who are corporate-owned or too far into party ideology." Methvin supports "Medicare for All", raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and making college education more affordable though costs of higher education skyrocketed with the increase in federal assistance.[19]

Methvin said that the "blue wave" which some had predicted will help Democrats gain control of the House. "This district would do a whole lot better with a member of Congress who is part of the majority party," she said, without acknowledging that Higgins is currently in the majority party. Methvin said that she had more than three hundred volunteers building support.[19]

Methvin was the official choice of the Louisiana Democratic Executive Committee in the race to unseat Higgins.[20]

Family life

In 1988, Methvin married James Thomas McManus (born February 1951) of Lafayette, and the couple had two sons, Michael James McManus and Connor Hill McManus. James McManus had three other children from his former marriage to Dianne Hatten: Christine Lynn McManus, Matthew Robert McManus, and John Thomas McManus, who hence became Methvin's stepchildren.[21] The couple divorced in 2006.

Methvin is heavily involved in the study of her family genealogy.[3]

References

1. "Mildred Methvin, October 1952". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
2. "Press Release: Retirement of Judge Mildred Methvin" (PDF). satoriadr.com. July 28, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
3. "Milton Joseph Cunningham". genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
4. "Membership in the Louisiana Senate, 1880-Present" (PDF). senate.la.gov. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
5. "Charles Milton Cunningham". familytreemaker.genealogy.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
6. "Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2016: Natchitoches Parish" (PDF). house.Louisiana.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
7. "William Tharp Cunningham". genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
8. "William Peyton Cunningham, Sr". genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
9. "Lallah Hill Cunningham Methvin". findagrave.com. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
10. "DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Jr". genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
11. Mildred "Mimi" Methvin McManus. "Myrtis Lucille Gregory Methvin". Lafayette, Louisiana: genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
12. "Mildred E. "Mimi" Methvin" (PDF). nadn.org. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
13. "American Inns of Court Membership Directory" (PDF). home.innsofcourt.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
14. William Johnson (July 16, 2014). "Mildred Methvin to fill Judge Hebert's position". Opelousas, Louisiana: The Opelousas Daily World. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
15. "Patricia Powell, August 1952". Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
16. Melissa Gregory (September 27, 2016). "Fired Rapides teacher wins $1M+ judgment against board". The Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
17. Melissa Gregory (May 21, 2018). "Rapides School Board appeal denied in teacher retaliation case". The Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
18. Mark Ballard (July 18, 2018). "Candidates for Louisiana Secretary of State, Congress begin to qualify for fall elections". The Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
19. Elizabeth Crisp (July 21, 2018). "A day with one-of-a-kind U. S. Rep. Clay Higgins: 'Dog the Bounty Hunter', motorcycles, tattoos, more". The Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
20. Greg Hilburn (August 20, 2018). "See who Louisiana Democrats pinned their hopes on". The Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
21. "James Thomas McManus". genealogy.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.