William Hunter, longtime adviser to two New Orleans sheriffs, dead ...

William Hunter, who served a short stint as Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff in 2004, died Monday of heart failure at Interim LSU Public Hospital. He was 69.

Hunter ran the sheriff's office for 10 months after his longtime boss, Charles Foti, was elected Louisiana's attorney general. He initially declared he had no interest in running for a full term, but unsuccessfully stood for election later that year. Mr. Hunter went on to work for Marlin Gusman, the victor, as a chief deputy.

Mr. Hunter was a top adviser to Foti for a quarter-century. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Tulane University.

After serving as a Marine in Vietnam, Mr. Hunter was a member of the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council before joining Foti's office in the late 1970s.

He was director of the office's Intake and Processing Center and the Records and Property Division. He also oversaw several programs within the office, such as a pretrial release program and the National Institute of Justice's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program.

After Foti was elected state attorney general in 2003, he named Mr. Hunter chief deputy in January 2004, clearing the way for him to be his interim successor when Foti took the oath of office two days later.

At that time, Mr. Hunter's response was terse -- "Absolutely not" -- when asked whether he was interested in running for the job that fall.

"I have no interest in political office," he said.

Six months later, Mr. Hunter changed his mind, saying the city's criminal-justice system was in "desperate need" of an experience corrections professional such as himself.

He placed third in a nine-person field.

Survivors include his wife, Charlotte Hunter, and a stepson, Sebastian Peters.

A funeral will be held Saturday at 1:30 p.m. the chapel of Tharp-Sontheimer-Tharp Funeral Home, 1600 N. Causeway Blvd., in Metairie. Visitation will start at 9 a.m.

Burial will be in the Garden of Memories.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/william_hunter_longtime_adviso.html

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