This week is Crime Victims Rights Week. Meet Leone Fitzgerald, Director of the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Victim Assistance Program.

 

Leone has been with the DA’s Office since the conception of the Victim Assistance Program, which was created in October 1996. She has served as director for over 20 years. She is a nationally credentialed advocate at the advanced and comprehensive level. She has seen the program grow from a staff of two to a staff of nine and was instrumental in the start of a Victim Assistance Program dedicated to victims of juvenile crime.

 

Leone works with and supports many of the organizations providing services to crime victims in our community, such as The Gingerbread House, the Caddo/Bossier Domestic Violence Task Force, Project Celebration, Northwest LA Family Justice Center, YWCA, and the Northwest LA Reentry Steering Committee, to name a few. In 2018, Leone received the Pioneer for Social Change Award from Project Celebration, recognizing her work in the area of domestic violence.

 

One of Leone’s highest professional honors was chosen in 2023 to receive the first Petrina G. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award for Continuous Service to the Caddo/Bossier DV Task Force – an award created to honor the memory of her fellow advocate and precious friend.

 

From an early age, Leone knew she wanted to do something to help others, preferably in the criminal justice system.

 

“As a teenager, I thought I wanted to go to law school and become a prosecutor. After I took my first political science class in college, I hated it,” she shared. “I changed my major to sociology and nixed law school. I actually love what I do now and think it’s better suited for me because I get to have more direct contact with crime victims. I enjoy getting to accompany them through the court system and see them come out on the other side. I feel honored when I learn about a deceased victim by hearing the family tell me about their loved one. I am amazed by the resilience I get to see firsthand every day. If I can say or do just one little thing to ease a victim’s or family’s experience with this system, then it is worth it to me.”