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Local advocate urges Lafourche Parish Council to create oversight for protective-order enforcement
Summary
A Lafourche resident described a case in which a custody reversal occurred while a protective order was active and urged the council to create a child-safety oversight task force, require verification of signed judgments before custody transfers, and convene quarterly interagency meetings.
Jill Petrie, founder of the Petri Promise Project, told the Lafourche Parish Council that protective orders in the parish are not consistently enforced and described her own experience caring for a child under multiple protective orders. She said a judge reversed custody on Jan. 3, 2025 while a protective order remained active and that a signed judgment was not produced until nearly four weeks later.
Petrie said the delay and the absence of a verified signed judgment allowed law enforcement to carry out a custody transfer without appropriate documentation and left the child exposed to further harm. “Protective orders are issued and then ignored,” she said, and asked the council to take three local steps: create a child-safety oversight task force to review how protective orders and custody changes are handled in Lafourche Parish; adopt a verification process requiring confirmation of a signed judgment before any custody transfer is enforced by parish agencies; and hold quarterly interagency meetings between law enforcement, child protective services and community advocates to close communication gaps.
Council members acknowledged the limits of parish authority over court orders but did not dispute that coordination gaps exist. The chair suggested Petrie submit a written records request for documents the council controls and indicated staff would follow up to determine what the council could provide; no formal action or vote was taken on Petrie’s recommendations during the meeting.
Claims and status: Petrie alleged a custody reversal occurred without a signed judgment and that agencies failed to coordinate enforcement; that allegation was not resolved during the meeting and the council did not provide a formal response beyond administrative follow-up.
Next steps: Petrie requested local accountability measures; the council clerk offered to accept a written request for records the council holds and to identify which agencies would need to be contacted for other documents.
