Services set for Magistrate Judge LaRue

Services have been scheduled for U.S. Magistrate Judge Denise LaRue, who died last week after an illness. She was 59.

All events are at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church, 5136 N. Michigan Road, Indianapolis. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and one hour before the 11 a.m. service Saturday. Arrangements are being handled by Stuart Mortuary, Inc.

LaRue was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana bench on May 11, 2011, and she was the first African-American magistrate judge to serve in the district. A cum laude graduate of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, she previously worked as a staff attorney at the Indiana Civil Rights Commission before entering private practice at the firm that eventually became Haskin & LaRue LLP. 

Judges, lawyers and friends said LaRue was very smart, always well-prepared and cared about the litigants who appeared in her courtroom.

“She was a master mediator and reconciler, bringing her keen intellect, emotional intelligence and powers of persuasion to bear in successfully settling hundreds of cases in our court,” said Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson. “She was also our dear friend and trusted colleague, and her loss to the members of the court is a permanent one.”