Judge Mike Sullivan, who was a year short of ending his second term as a Third Circuit Court of Appeal judge and was planning to run for re-election, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 68.
Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court Louis Perret, a longtime friend of Sullivan’s, says the judge died of complications from pneumonia after being admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes Monday. Sullivan’s death came as a shock to friends and family; arrangements had not been made by yesterday afternoon.
“He was planning to run for re-election,” Perret said hours after learning of Sullivan’s death yesterday. “We talked about it two days ago.”
Sullivan, who successfully battled cancer in recent years, suffered a stroke several months ago but seemed to be on a fast track to recovery, Perret says. “Mentally, he was fine. He was already caught up on his cases due to be heard in February.”
Sullivan had also been mourning the recent death of his mother-in-law, with whom he shared a close bond.
“He was a brilliant judge and had the perfect temperament to be a judge,” Perret says. “In almost 30 years of friendship, I never saw him lose his temper.”
According to today’s Advocate, Sullivan graduated from Loyola Law School in 1973 and spent the following decade practicing law. He was elected Lafayette City Court judge in 1983 and was re-elected in 1984 and 1990. In 1994, Sullivan was elected without opposition to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal. He was re-elected without opposition again in 2000.
Read the rest of The Advocate story here.