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Thad Toups said that some people thought he would burn out on his job by now, but receiving top recognition with the 2011 Leadership Award from the National Center of DWI Courts has only confirmed to him that he is doing the right thing.
“This is a great thing for the center,” National Center for DWI Courts Director David Wallace said of Toups being recognized prior to a Monday afternoon ceremony at the Lafourche Parish Courthouse in Thibodaux. “This award recognizes what he has been doing in Lafourche Parish and the state. We get nominations from around the country, but he was chosen as being the person with the most impact for the area.”
NCDC oversees activities in drug and DWI treatment courts across the United States.
Each year the leadership award is presented during the NCDC’s annual conference. Toups was unable to attend the July event in Washington, D.C., so Wallace made the trip to Thibodaux and delivered the award.
Drug Court Presiding Judge Jerome Barbera credited Toups for being the catalyst in starting the Lafourche Parish Drug Court initially in 1997.
Toups has been assistant district attorney in Lafourche Parish for 28 of his 32 years practicing law. He had been with the district attorney’s office as a prosecutor for approximately 15 years when he was approached to develop a drug court.
The four educational phases that convicted drug and DWI offenders must enter and fulfill to successfully pass the program can take one to five years to complete. During the past four years there have been between 95 and 105 people in the program annually.
“It’s something that I’ve really come to love,” Toups said. “I was recognized a few years ago as one of the three people who started the drug court in Lafourche Parish. That was a nice thing.”
Their peers nominate drug court district attorneys from across the nation with only one recipient being selected for final recognition.
“Obviously, it was a great honor and certainly one that was not expected,” Toups said. “When [Lafourche Parish Drug Treatment Court Administrator] Fred Duplechin said he wanted to nominate me, I said, ‘Fred, if you want to waste your time just go ahead and do it.’
“But a few weeks after that I got a letter from David Wallace congratulating me. I was very excited. I’m very humbled by it and it is something where you never look to getting recognized, but when it happens it’s nice,” he added.
“Thad and I have served together in several capacities [during our careers],” Barbera said. “He is a true public servant. He has a unique understanding of what the drug court principles are. He has a unique understanding of what the measure of success is in the drug court as well as the measure of failure.
“He has done phenomenal work and been a key component of this team since it started,” Wallace said.
“[Toups] has been an invaluable part of the team,” Barbera said. “As you know, the district attorney is the gatekeeper in Louisiana for the drug court and Thad is the principle person in the district attorney’s office that acts as the initial screen for people interested in coming into the program. This is an honor for Thad, but also for Lafourche Parish … our program … and drug courts in Louisiana.”
“In 2009, [approximately] 10,800 individuals [in the United States] were killed because someone had too much to drink and chose to drive,” Wallace said. “For years we’ve recognized how serious drunk driving is. What we have learned is that it will take a comprehensive approach to end drunk driving. One of those tools is DWI Court.”
Present with Toups to receive the honor were his wife, Eloise and daughters Katherine Toups and Emily Toups Peerson.
“I’m very proud of my father,” Katherine Toups said. “This is a tremendous award for him and he is deserving of it. I’ve learned about hard work [from his example and] I’ve learned responsibility and how to grow as an adult.”
“I certainly never expected [this award],” Toups said. “After all these years I still have that burn, that desire, to be involved with drug court.”
National Center of DWI Courts Director David Wallace, left, visits with Lafourche Parish Assistant District Attorney Thad Toups along with Toups’ wife Eloise and daughters Emily Toups Peerson and Katherine Toups. MIKE NIXON
