Mike Nerren

Michael Joe Nerren, known as Mike Nerren (born May 28, 1963),^[1] is the Division E judge of the 26th Judicial District Court based in Bossier and Webster parishes in northwestern Louisiana.

Background

Nerren is the son of Fenely Smith, a former district chief for the fire department in Bossier City, Louisiana, and Connee Smith, a retired employee of the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Department. He graduated c. 1981 from Haughton High School in Haughton in south Bossier Parish.^[2] Nerren received his undergraduate degree in 1989 from Louisiana State University in Shreveport and his Juris Doctorate in 1994, at the age of thirty-one, from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge. He is a former president of the Bossier Bar Association and Bossier Dixie Baseball.^[3]

In 2007, he became an assistant district attorney under DA Schuyler Marvin of Minden in Webster Parish. In that capacity, he served as the juvenile prosecutor and handled all cases of youthful offenders between the ages of ten and seventeen.^[2]

Nerren and his wife, the former Suzanne Ondine Hutto (born October 1968), a language arts teacher at Cope Middle School in Bossier City, have three children, Chance, Laurel, and Coleman Nerren. They reside in Bossier City.^[2]

Legal career

A Republican, Nerren was elected in 2012 to succeed the retiring Bruce M. Bolin, a Democrat who held the judgeship from its creation in 1991 until his retirement in 2012. Bolin also formerly served in the Louisiana House of Representatives.^[4] The court is based in Benton, the Bossier Parish seat of government.

In the 2012 election to choose Bolin's successor, Nerren was opposed by two other Republicans, Whitley Robert "Whit" Graves (born October 1954) and John Bernard Slattery, Jr. (born July 1955), the city judge in Springhill in northern Webster Parish. No Democrat entered the competition. In previous years, no Republicans would likely have filed for the judgeship, but party fortunes began to reverse themselves in down-ballot races in Louisiana early in the 21st century.^[5] Nerren and Graves led the primary field on November 6, and Judge Slattery, who finished in third place, was eliminated from contention. Nerren then defeated Graves in the second round of balloting on December 8, 7,390 (53.5 percent) to 6,412 (46.5 percent).^[6]

In a case that attracted regional attention, Judge Nerren ruled in April 2014 that Robert Bond (born c. 1961) is competent to stand trial for the second degree murder of his estranged wife, Annie Bond (born c. 1967), whose charred remains were uncovered on November 18, 2013, in a wooded area near Dorcheat Bayou in northern Webster Parish four days after she was reported missing. Police tracked Robert Bond to a highway rest area along Interstate 10 in southern Mississippi the day after Annie Bond's remains were found. Police said that Bond then shot himself with a .22 caliber handgun as officers approached. Bond returns to court on June 17.^[7]

Nerren's court colleagues include Parker Self, Michael O. Craig, Charles Jacobs, Jeff R. Thompson, and Jeff Cox. Republicans Nerren, Self, Craig, and Cox were all unopposed in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 4, 2014. Jacobs ran without opposition to succeed his former legal colleague, John M. Robinson; Thompson, to succeed Ford E. Stinson, Jr.^[8]

References