John M. Robinson (Louisiana judge)

John Marion Robinson (born April 15, 1949)^[1] is a former Division D judge of the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier and Webster parishes in northwestern Louisiana. He resides in Bossier City.

Background

Robinson graduated from Louisiana State University and the LSU Law Center, both in Baton Rouge. From 1986 until 1999, he was the city judge in Springhill in northern Webster Parish. A former practicing attorney, he once served as the president of the Louisiana Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. From 1969 to 1975, Robinson was a member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, in which he achieved the rank of Specialist 5th Class.^[2]

Judicial career

Robinson won a special election to the 26th district court on October 23, 1999 to fill the seat vacated by Harmon Drew, Jr., who was instead elected in 1998 to a ten-year term on the Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal for the Second District, based in Shreveport. Then a Democrat, Robinson handily defeated the Republican Whitley Robert "Whit" Graves (born October 1954) of Bossier City, 17,749 (60.8 percent) to 11,442 (39.2 percent).^[3] Robinson since switched his registration to Independent.^[1] Robinson was elected district judge three months after the death of his wife Cynthia W. "Cindy" Robinson, who succumbed at the age of forty-eight of a brain tumor. Like her husband, she was an LSU graduate and had been a teacher and a businesswoman. The couple had two sons, Eric and Kyle Robinson.^[4] Judge Robinson subsequently married the former Beth Conrad Langston (born October 1962), a Bossier City attorney.^[5]

Robinson's judgeship comes up for election again for another six-year term on November 4, 2014. Whit Graves, who lost to Robinson in 1999 and to Mike Nerren in 2012, was expected to run again but instead announced that he would seek to unseat DA Schuyler Marvin of Minden. In addition to Nerren, Robinson's court colleagues included Ford E. Stinson, Jr., who also retired in 2014, as well as Parker Self, Michael Craig, and Jeff Cox.^[2]

Attorney Charles Jacobs, a Republican from Springhill^[6] who once worked in Robinson's Springhill law office, was unopposed in the election to succeed Robinson in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 4, 2014.^[7]

References