Former VP City Judge passes away at 75

Ville Platte bids farewell to one of the city’s well known attorneys and former Ville Platte City Judge Joffre Wendel Fusilier with his passing on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.
Fusilier, who was still practicing law at the time of his death, was an attorney for over 50 years in this area and when it comes to what kind of law he practiced, the employees at his office said, “He did it all.”
Local attorney Alex “Sonny” Chapman, who worked under Fusilier for 15 years as an Associate Attorney, said, “Wendel was a trail blazer in the local legal world.”
Chapman went further in depth about Fusilier’s career by stating, “He worked on maritime cases, product liability cases, and complex liability cases. He played with the big boys, and wasn’t scared to do it.”
In the midst of his career as an attorney, Fusilier decided to not only be the man arguing a case but also the one who renders the verdict.
Fusilier took over Joseph E. Coreil’s job as Ville Platte City Judge in 1977.
He remained judge until 1990, and then left the bench to devote all of his efforts to his law practice.
One of the things that Chapman admired most about Fusilier was that “he never forgot his roots and where he was from.”
Chapman continued, “He had a really big boat named Miss Frisco after his wife Fran, and a strip across the back that read Ville Platte, Louisiana. Everywhere he went in it, people knew where he was from.”
Ardoin’s Funeral Home of Ville Platte is handling the arrangements for Fusilier.
See obit for details on the funeral arrangements.