LOUISIANA RECORD

NEW ORLEANS – An attorney who formerly served as the first assistant district attorney in Calcasieu Parish has permanently given up his law license after being arrested twice in the past two years.

Attorney Ronald A. Rossitto, of Lake Charles, permanently resigned from the practice of law after pleading guilty to charges of malfeasance of office and simple battery from an incident that occurred in January 2013. According to a press release from Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell, Rossitto, while employed as a assistant district attorney in Calcasieu Parish, groped a man in his office and offered to provide him with $100 to get his driver's license reinstated.

Through a 2015 plea agreement in that case Rossitto received a two-year suspended sentence and two years of probation.

“As a public servant and an administrator of justice, Rossitto was expected to uphold the highest moral and ethical standards. Rossitto instead used his position of power to erode public trust and compromise the integrity of the justice system,” Caldwell said.

Rossitto also plead guilty in 2013 to obscenity and purchasing alcohol for a person under 21 in what the Attorney General’s Office called “similar allegations” that were lodged against him in Orleans Parish.

Just prior to pleading guilty in the Orleans Parish case, Rossitto resigned from the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office after 36 years. Following that incident Rossitto had his law license temporarily suspended in June 2014 before permanently surrendering his law license in lieu of discipline today.

Notably, Rossitto was appointed to the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board in 2008 by Gov. Bobby Jindal.