Audrey Gossett Louis
Audrey Gossett Louis was raised in the district she now serves. Audrey attended Floresville ISD from kindergarten through 12th grade. Audrey was sworn in as the 81st Judicial District Attorney in January 2017. As the top law enforcement official for Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, LaSalle, and Wilson Counties, Audrey is responsible for overseeing that justice is done for all adult felony and public corruption cases in the over 5,000 square mile district.
Audrey Gossett Louis’ nearly 24-year legal career has been devoted to prosecution. Audrey began serving communities by prosecuting for the State of Texas as an Assistant District Attorney in Lubbock, Bexar, Guadalupe, Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, La Salle, and Wilson counties, as well as with the United States Attorney’s Office as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. Audrey’s prosecution background spans a variety of types of cases, including among others, prosecution of capital murders of police officers, children, murders, sexual assaults of children, drug dealers, intoxication manslaughters, white-collar crime, and complex fraud cases.
Experience is necessary for a successful district attorney’s office. Unlike some district attorneys, Audrey continues to take cases to jury trial and handles cases in the courtroom including Capital Murders, Aggravated Sexual Assaults of Children, and Murders. Audrey’s passion is providing justice to victims and their families and ensuring the safety of our district. While most district attorney’s offices across the state and nation are suffering a shortage of prosecutors, Audrey’s reputation throughout South Texas has kept her office fully staffed with experienced prosecutors, many of whom have taken pay cuts from larger DA’s offices to serve under her guidance and leadership.
Audrey’s expertise and leadership is known throughout the State and goes beyond just prosecution. On November 5, 2017, in her first year as the Elected District Attorney, the mass shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs happened. Through working with the responding local and federal law enforcement agencies, mental health experts, and various other victims’ services organizations, Audrey and her office worked tirelessly to help the survivors. Because of that tragedy, Audrey and her victim advocate were called almost immediately to assist with the Uvalde school shooting. Audrey and her advocate assisted the district attorney in setting up a family resource center for the first month after the shooting. These experiences have made Audrey and her advocate unintended subject matter experts and presenters on victim services for mass shootings to statewide audiences by various organizations, including the Texas District and County Attorneys Association Elected District Attorney Conference, the Annual Criminal and Civil Law Conference, Every Victim, Every Time Conference, the Civil Law Conference, Key Personnel Conference, and the Texas Attorney General Crime Victim Services Conference.
Audrey has served on the board of directors for the Border Prosecutions Unit (BPU) since 2017. Since 2018, she has served on the Executive Committee for Region 2. BPU provides critical resources through grant funding to combat the war on drugs as well as the border crisis. Through this funding, Audrey has devoted two prosecutors to human smuggling, drug trafficking, and gang violence. Audrey is known for her tough stance on drug dealers and human smugglers.
In December 2019, to curb the use of drugs and violence in the schools, Audrey implemented the first district wide K9 program devoted to the 13 independent school districts in her jurisdiction. The program provides random, unscheduled searches of both the junior high and high schools in the district. During school holidays and summer break, the K9 Investigator works drug interdiction with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program combating the war on drugs throughout the district. Shortly after the Uvalde school shooting, Audrey also had her K9 Investigator certified as an instructor for Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT). He and other area instructors have held numerous training courses in schools and trained over 60 officers on the proper response to an active shooter situation.
Audrey knows that law enforcement agencies in her district are short on resources, and continued training is critical and required for peace officers to do their jobs properly and provide the best investigations. Throughout her tenure as DA, Audrey has provided free Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) training to all law enforcement agencies in the district and beyond on topics such as Crime Scene Evidence, Search Warrant Writing, Report Writing, Driving While Intoxicated Certification, Rolling Stoned, Guarding Texas Highways, Child Sexual Assault Investigations, Warrantless Searches, and annual K9 Certification for all area K9s through National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA) and Dogs for Law Enforcement (DLE).
In November 2022, Audrey was inducted into the Texas Prosecutors Society. This society honors those who have served with distinction and who support the continued efforts of the Texas District and County Attorney’s Association.
In November 2023, Audrey applied for and was awarded a $10.8 million grant to fund and fully equip a regional medical examiner’s office with a complete toxicology lab to serve her district as well as surrounding counties in need of medical examiner services. This critical service will allow families who lose loved ones to get answers to the circumstances surrounding their death much sooner.
In December 2023 Audrey was honored to be nominated and voted in as the 2024 Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Special Prosecutions Unit (SPU). This unit is responsible for the oversight of all prosecutions in TDCJ (prison) and juvenile facilities throughout the State of Texas. With three units in the 81st Judicial District, SPU provides a tremendous service to our district by prosecuting all crimes that happen behind TDCJ walls, saving our office the additional resources these prosecutions would require. In addition, SPU has a division dedicated to the prosecution of prisoners set for release that are deemed sexually violent predators. This team works around the state to keep these predators behind bars. Audrey is honored to serve as Chair of the SPU.
Audrey has served on the Board of Directors since the inception of the Children’s Alliance of South Texas (CAST), a Child Advocacy Center. Audrey spearheaded CAST in 2011, and CAST opened its doors in 2013. CAST provides no-cost services to children that have suffered sexual and physical abuse in Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, LaSalle, Wilson and other surrounding counties in South Texas. In addition, Audrey received state-wide recognition for her work on the advocacy center when she was awarded the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Texas Volunteer of the Year in 2014. Audrey continues her passion to serve abused children by presenting with CAST staff on “Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse” to teachers and staff in school districts throughout her five counties. Over 1,400 students and staff have received the training this school year.
Audrey also serves on the Board of Directors for Safer Path Family Violence Shelter. In 2019, the DA’s office along with the Guadalupe Family Violence Shelter (serving Wilson and Karnes Counties) piloted the Coordinated Community Response Team in Wilson County. When the results proved overwhelmingly positive, the DA’s office initiated the same coordinated response across the remaining 4 counties of the district adding additional services from other shelters such as Safer Path (that serves Atascosa County) and Wintergarden Woman’s Shelter, Inc (that serves LaSalle and Frio Counties). This is a collaboration between law enforcement agencies, the DA’s office, County Attorney’s offices across the district, Justices of the Peace across the district and the family violence shelters to provide the best possible investigation and services in domestic violence cases. Free training, meetings, and empowerment training for victims are key components of the coalition.
Audrey’s priorities are to continue to push the most important cases to trial and conclusion, as effectively as possible, continue harsh punishment for human smugglers and drug dealers, focus on keeping drugs out of our schools, and school safety, and continue the effective leadership and training for our law enforcement agencies.