Judge Patricia Head Minaldi

Patricia Head Minaldi, 60, of Lake Charles has finished her final race. Patti was born September 12, 1958, in Somerville, Massachusetts, to John and Florence Head. She grew up primarily in Hamden, Connecticut, and graduated from Hopkins Country Day School in 1976. Thereafter she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University (1980) then moved to Louisiana to attend Tulane University Law School where she obtained her Juris Doctorate in 1983.

Patti began her career as an assistant with then Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick where she worked from 1983 to 1986. In 1986 she approached newly elected Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Richard Ieyoub for a position on his staff. DA Ieyoub recognized the talent and intellect she brought and offered her a position immediately. She excelled in that position handling very difficult and heinous crimes. She took a special interest in the victims of the crimes she prosecuted, working very hard to keep victims involved in the process for the solace it might give them.

In 1996 she ran for and was elected as a Judge for the Fourteenth Judicial District Court, the first female judge for the district. In 2003 she was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana where she served until assuming senior disability status in 2017. She was as talented a jurist as she was an attorney earning praise from practitioners and litigants as being exceedingly fair, honest, and pleasant, affording all their day in court. Throughout her career as a prosecutor and a jurist she was the recipient of many honors and awards.

Patti was a tremendous athlete as well. She participated in marathons and triathlons, working her body as mightily as she worked her mind. She was a proud (and only female) member of the “lunch bunch” who ran daily from the YMCA. Always a competitor she tested herself and demonstrated the same ferocity in her athletic career as she did in her professional. When at the top of her game there was no one who could best her.

And along the way she managed to also become a mother. This she found to be the most important contribution of her life and her sons were everything to her. She was so very proud of the men they became. They were her heart.

Patti was preceded in death by her parents as well as her brother, John Head. She is survived by her sons, John Anthony “Jake” Minaldi of Honolulu, Hawaii and Michael Patrick Minaldi and his fiancée Ellen Margaret Landry of Baton Rouge and New Orleans respectively. She is also survived by her two sisters and their husbands, Jean London (Arnold) and Debra Castro (Larry) and multiple nieces and nephews and their progeny.

There will be visitation at Johnson Funeral Home on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral service will be held at St. Margaret Catholic Church on Thursday, December 6, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. The family asks that anyone wishing to honor Patti’s memory please donate to St. Margaret Catholic School, the St. Louis Catholic High School Foundation, the Louisiana Boxer Rescue, or the charity of their own choosing.