Special to
L’Observateur

Sheriff Greg Champagne recently announced the promotion of Gil Schmidt to the rank of Major.

Schmidt began his career with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office in 1981 as a deputy in the patrol division. He graduated from the Louisiana State University POST Academy in 1982, and was promoted to detective where he remained until 1984.

In April of 2009, Champagne promoted Schmidt to captain over Patrol, Traffic, K-9, Marine, Vehicle Maintenance, Reserve Division, and off-duty assignments.

Schmidt will now serve as the commander of the Strategic Operations Department.

His duties will include overseeing courthouse security, civil process servers, standard operating guidelines, contracts/memorandums of understandings and all hazard emergency plans.

He will also be the Sheriff’s Office Emergency Operations Manager as well as the liaison officer to all other Parish Level Governmental Agencies.

Schmidt is married to Mary Gautreaux Schmidt. They live in Destrehan.

He has three children — Kristen, Gil III, and Jonathan — and two grandchildren, Caden and Ansley.