Leonard Gray

She can be tough as a prosecutor. She hasnt lost a case in 10 years. But Kim McElwee has a gentler side as well. McElwee, 43, is an assistant district attorney in the 29th Judicial District, serving under Harry Morel since July 1997. Since she came here, her impact on the community has been considerable. However, it has come at a price. Born in Natchitoches, McElwee finished at Tara High School in Baton Rouge and continued her legal education at Louisiana State University and Loyola Law School, completing there in 1988. It was while she was in high school that she was drawn to a legal career. McElwee was one of several Tara High students who attended a Law Day program presented by Ossie Brown, district attorney in Baton Rouge. “When we were kids, we used to watch Perry Mason on TV, and I always felt bad for Hamilton Burger (the district attorney who lost every case to Mason),” she recalled. But the Law Day program cemented her career choice. “From that point on, there was no question in my mind.” Both her parents were public-spirited, and a great-grandfather was a sheriff. “I got that sense you need to do something for your community. My mother helped start a humane society.” Thats not to say, though, that there wasnt temptation. In college, shed go on spring break ski trips to Colorado and considered being a ski bum. After college, she moved to Colorado where she got a job and a place where she “had a view of the Continental Divide from my kitchen window.” There were drawbacks which soon sent her back “I got to ski every week, but the food was terrible and the people were cold. South Louisiana is the place to be.” She returned to the New Orleans area in 1983, completed her law studies, and McElwee started working for District Attorney Harry Connick the day after completing the bar exam and was immediately assigned to night court. “Im really not that comfortable getting up in front of a crowd of people,” she said. When it came to her first case argued in court, the judge called for opening statements and her coprosecutor turned to her and whispered, You do it. And she did.” Connicks office proved to be “a great training ground” as she was in court virtually every day with the caseload generated by New Orleans. However, after several years, she was feeling “seriously burned out” after more than 100 jury trials and got reassigned to insurance cases, which she handled for two years. “I hated every minute of it,” McElwee said. “After three months, I was bored out of my mind.” From 1992 to 1996, she worked in the Jefferson Parish district attorneys office, two of those years, handling all the child abuse cases, and moved to St. Tammany Parish for several months before Harry Morel called her with a job offer. “I had been looking for awhile and had my named out there,” McElwee said. “This is the job I’ve always wanted.” The spring of 2000 brought McElwee the case which brought her a high profile – the Brian Matherne case from the Norco area. She said she felt the outcome of the case was the best thing all around – Matherne accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison just before trial began. Matherne did face a hearing in which several of his accusers expressed their own pain and grief at his actions. “What we did was give them a real sense of freedom,” she said. “It would have been awful for them to go through trial.” Fortunately, such cases are rare, and McElwee finds opportunities to relax as often as she can. She loves to play golf and hopes to travel, playing the great courses around the world. South Louisiana holds another appeal to her since “you can usually play golf year-round.” She loves reading history and enjoys music, theatre and her own cooking. Single, she lives in Metairie. The calling of prosecutor is “a very personal thing to me,” McElwee said. “I do worry about the average citizen having to be exposed to this sort of thing and then go about their lives.” However, her greatest reward after a successful prosecution is for the victim, especially if its a child-abuse case, to come up to her afterward and thank her. “What we are doing is empowering these kids,” McElwee said.