[1] Brenda Jefferson Foster had originally been charged with some of the same offenses but accepted a plea bargain.
In exchange for pleading guilty to a minor charge, she averted being prosecuted for the major offenses but agreed to serve as a witness for the office of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.
At the 2009 June 5 arraignment U.S. Magistrate Joseph Wilkinson Jr. instructed the four defendants to refrain from contact with Brenda Jefferson Foster.
[2] In a 2009 May 28 editorial the New Orleans Times-Picayune acknowledged Brenda Jefferson Foster's admission of her part in the alleged fraudulent activities.
[3] At a hearing before U. S. District Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle on 2009 June 17, lawyers for Betty Jefferson and Angela Coleman requested a delay from the 2009 August 3 start date for the racketeering trial; at the same hearing, however, lawyers for Renée Gill Pratt and Mose Jefferson requested that the racketeering trial begin as scheduled on August 3.