Retired judge to speak at charity event

The Tri-City Helping Hearts Foundation is hosting a benefit gospel banquet at 4 p.m. Saturday at the AARP Building at 4014 Chennault St., Morgan City, a news release stated.
The foundation will honor a local citizen.
Entertainment will be provided by musician Marcus Davis of Jennings.
The foundation is a non-profit organization established to serve the citizens of Morgan City, Berwick, Amelia and Patterson, the news release stated. The primary purpose of the foundation is to assist citizens needing financial assistance with the burial expenses of a loved one. Proceeds from the banquet will help the foundation to fulfill this purpose.
The foundation is seeking sponsors and donors to help underwrite the cost of the charitable event. Businesses, organizations and individuals are asked to sponsor the event with a $300 donation, which will include six tickets.
Herman Hartman, president of the organization, noted in the news release that Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, “The least you do unto these my brethren, you do also unto me.”
The guest speaker is retired Judge Freddie Pitcher Jr., who was appointed chancellor of the Southern University Law Center in November 2002. With his appointment he was also given the rank of full professor of law.
Pitcher, who earned his bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from Southern, came to the chancellorship from the position of partner with the Baton Rouge office of Phelps Dunbar LLP, an international law firm. He was named a partner in that firm upon his retirement from the bench in May 1997. While with Phelps Dunbar, his practice focus was in the areas of commercial, casualty and employment law litigation. He was also a member of the firm’s appellate practice group.
Pitcher, a longtime adjunct law professor, has a career of many firsts. He became the first African American elected to a judgeship in Baton Rouge with his election to the city court in a city-wide election in April 1983. He was the first African American elected to the 19th Judicial District in a parish wide election in 1987, and achieved another first with his election to the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal, without opposition. While serving on the First Circuit, he participated in more than 1,000 judicial opinions, authoring well over 200. Pitcher has also served as an Associate Justice Ad Hoc on the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Prior to his election to the bench, Pitcher was the principal partner in the firm Pitcher, Tyson, Avery and Cunningham. He has also served as a special counsel in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Louisiana, and as an assistant district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish.
Pitcher is married to Dr. Harriet Anderson Pitcher, and they have one daughter, Dr. Kyla Dean Pitcher.