Brenda Jefferson Foster

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Brenda Jefferson Foster (1955 – May 17, 2010) was a key witness for the U.S. government in the 2008–2009 trials of several relatives and associates: her older sister Betty Jefferson and Betty’s brother Mose Jefferson; Angela Coleman, Betty’s daughter; and Mose Jefferson’s companion, former City Councilwoman Renée Gill Pratt. She had been charged with some offenses herself but accepted a plea deal on a minor charge. By pleading guilty to that small charge, she avoided the major charges and agreed to cooperate as a witness for U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. The other defendants pleaded not guilty at their June 5, 2009 arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. At that hearing, Magistrate Joseph Wilkinson Jr. instructed the four defendants not to contact Brenda Jefferson Foster. A May 28, 2009 editorial in the Times-Picayune noted her admission of involvement in the alleged fraud. On June 17, 2009, during a hearing before Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle, lawyers for Betty Jefferson and Angela Coleman asked for a delay in the racketeering trial’s start date of August 3, while lawyers for Renée Gill Pratt and Mose Jefferson asked to proceed as scheduled on August 3. On July 28, 2009, Judge Lemelle delayed the racketeering trial to January 25, 2010.