Damon Preston | Public Advocate
Damon Preston is a career public defender and leads DPA as Kentucky’s Public Advocate. After graduating from Transylvania University and Harvard Law School, Damon began his legal career in the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. He returned to Kentucky in 1997 and has been with DPA ever since. First a staff attorney in the Richmond trial office, Damon led the Paducah and then Cynthiana offices as Directing Attorney. Starting in 2004, he managed DPA’s Appeals Branch before joining DPA’s Leadership Team as Trial Division Director in 2007. Early in 2011, he was appointed Deputy Public Advocate and remained in that position until his appointment as Public Advocate in 2017. In addition to work through DPA, Damon serves on the board of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is the past chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Kentucky Bar Association. He lives in Georgetown with his wife Amy and daughters Abbie and Marissa.
Melanie Lowe | Deputy Public Advocate
Melanie Lowe grew up in Catlettsburg, Kentucky. The daughter, granddaughter, and niece of steelworkers; she was the first of her family to graduate from college upon receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and English from Marshall University. She went on to graduate from the University of Kentucky, College of Law in May of 2000. Shortly after, she began her career as a public defender in the Elizabethtown Trial Office. During her 17 years as a public defender, she proudly represented clients for the Elizabethtown Trial Office, the Kentucky Innocence Project, Adult Post-Conviction, the LaGrange Trial Office and the Shelbyville Trial Office. Melanie was the 2016 Gideon Award Recipient. She resides in Henry County.
Samuel Cox | General Counsel
Samuel Cox is the general counsel for DPA. Sam became the Trial Division Director in 2019, after returning to serve as DPA’s Director of Law Operations in 2017. Prior to that, he had a successful practice as a private criminal defense attorney and expert mitigation consultant in the field of death penalty criminal defense litigation, investigation and mitigation. Earlier, Sam was a 12-year employee of DPA as a staff attorney in Bell, Madison and Fayette Counties, before joining the Capital Trial Branch, where he performed with a high degree of skill and experience on DPA’s most complex work. He educated public defenders on highly complex issues such as litigation of intellectual disability in death penalty cases. You can reach Sam Cox by email or phone at 502-782-3553.
Cheyla Bush | Assistant General Counsel
Cheyla Bush earned her law degree from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Louisville. Cheyla began her legal career in 2014 as a summer intern with the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA), before joining the LaGrange Trial Office full-time in 2015. In 2017, she transferred to the newly established Shelbyville Trial Office, and in 2019, she moved to the Frankfort Trial Office, continuing her impactful work in defending clients. Her exemplary service and commitment to public defense earned her the prestigious 2020 Defender Uprising Award. In 2021, Cheyla was appointed Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Office of the Public Advocate, where she continues to spearhead initiatives focused on fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. She has played an integral role in training new attorneys and interns and is an active participant in DPA’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion workgroup. Additionally, she represents DPA at university and college job fairs, contributing to recruitment and retention efforts. Cheyla also holds certificates from the University of South Florida and Cornell University, further enhancing her professional expertise. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing the mission of public defense and promoting diversity and inclusion within the legal field.
Jennifer Wittmeyer | Trial Division Director
Jennifer Wittmeyer is the Trial Division Director. Ms. Wittmeyer graduated Cum Laude from George Mason School of Law in Arlington, Virginia and received her undergraduate degree from Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. While living in Washington, D.C., Jennifer worked for both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Justice. Jennifer began her career as a public defender with the Louisville Metro Public Defender and joined DPA as a Staff Attorney in the Cynthiana Trial office in 2007. Jennifer became the Directing Attorney in Cynthiana and worked in that position for two years before becoming the Directing Attorney in the Bullitt County trial office in 2012. Jennifer grew up on a vegetable farm in southern Ohio but is now proud to call Louisville home and lives there with her son, Brycen, and their two dogs, Peanut and Jello.
Beth McMahon | Post-Trial Division Director
Beth McMahon graduated summa cum laude from Transylvania University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where she served as Executive Editor of The Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law. Ms. McMahon began her career at the Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office in 1994 and served as an attorney in the Juvenile Trial Division and the Appellate Division. She was promoted to Chief of the Juvenile Trial Division, including supervisory responsibility for the Mental Health docket. She has most recently served as the Deputy Chief Public Defender of the Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office. Ms. McMahon is the recipient of the 2014 In re: Gault Award, presented by the Department of Public Advocacy for advancing the quality of justice for juveniles in Kentucky, and the 2015 Gail Robinson Juvenile Justice Award, presented by the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in recognition of her contributions to and achievement in the development of juvenile law and her representation of children. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Clarence Earl Gideon Award, presented by the Department of Public Advocacy for demonstrating extraordinary commitment to equal justice and advancing the right to counsel for the poor in Kentucky. She is a member of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Kentucky Bar Association’s Criminal Law Section, and the Kentucky Bar Association’s Committee on Child Protection and Domestic Violence. Ms. McMahon serves as Chair of the Jefferson County Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and is a member of the Attorney Steering Committee of Citizens for Better Judges.
Brad Holajter | Conflict Services Division Director
Brad Holajter is the first Director of the Conflict Services Division at the Department of Public Advocacy. Brad returned to DPA in 2020 after serving as Executive Director of the Office of Management and Administrative Services (OMAS) at the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet (JPSC), since 2017. As Executive Director of OMAS, Brad provided support to the JPSC’s departments, officers, and employees on all matters related to human resources, budget, fiscal, Information technology and administrative operations. Brad began his career in 2004 with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy as a Public Advocate Investigator, specializing in capital trials investigations and mitigation defenses. In 2013, Brad was appointed Director of the Law Operations Division. In this role, Brad was instrumental in the opening of the Georgetown, Nicholasville, Princeton, and Shelbyville Trial Offices as well as in the development and implementation of the Defender Services Branch, which was created to assist in monitoring and providing data related to DPA’s Alternative Sentencing Workers (ASWs). Brad has worked closely with DPA’s Education Branch to educate Attorneys, Investigators, ASWs, and Leaders to improve client-centered representation and leadership skills. Currently, Brad manages Kentucky’s statewide indigent conflict defense system, with a focus on growing and improving the quality of DPA’s conflict defense statewide. Brad Holajter graduated with a JD from Syracuse University College of Law and a Bachelors Degree from Indiana University. You can reach Brad Holajter by email or phone at 502-782-0009.
Terra Harper | Law Operations Division Director
Terra Harper became the Law Operations Division Director in January of 2024. Terra graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in Family Studies. She began her career with the Department of Public Advocacy in the Paducah Trial office in 2002, where she worked for 15 years before transferring to the Shelbyville Trial office and later to the Central Office in Frankfort. In her spare time, Terra enjoys spending time with her family on Kentucky Lake and all things summertime! She currently resides in Frankfort with her husband and their four daughters.
Jeff Edwards | Protection & Advocacy Division Director
Jeff Edwards is the Protection and Advocacy Division Director.
Melanie Foote | Education, Recruitment, and Strategic Planning Division Director
Melanie Foote is the Education, Recruitment, and Strategic Planning Division Director. Melanie joined the Education Branch in 2015. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego and her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. She is a member of New York and Kentucky State Bars and has been practicing in Kentucky since she joined the Adult Post Conviction Branch of the Department of Public Advocacy in 2007. While in the Post Conviction Branch, Melanie represented adult clients on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, mistake in the proceedings, and claims of actual innocence. In 2009, she joined the Kentucky Innocence Project to work exclusively on DNA based claims of actual innocence. In 2010 she transitioned to a role in the trial division where she represented clients facing a variety of charges ranging from misdemeanors to capital offenses. Melanie serves as faculty for numerous programs and agencies, including Gideon’s Promise, NAPD, and NACDL. Melanie is also a NACDL board member.
Cara Lane Cape | Executive Staff Advisor
Cara Lane Cape is the Executive Staff Advisor at the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA). Ms. Cape received both a BSW and a Master of Social Work from Campbellsville University. Ms. Cape began her career at Protection and Permanency in Grayson County, where she was chief investigator. In 2010, Ms. Cape began working at DPA, where she held an administrative position in the Bowling Green Trial Office while completing her graduate degree. In 2011, Ms. Cape transferred to DPA’s Main Office in Frankfort, where she held positions in the Appeals Branch and Post-Trial Division Director’s Office, until finally ending up in the Office of Public Advocate in 2013 as a policy analyst. While working in the Office of Public Advocate, Ms. Cape was an instrumental part of the JustWare Case Management Team. Through this role, Ms. Cape was directly involved in the implementation, customizing, and maintaining of DPA’s case management system – JustWare, as well as provided training to all employees statewide. Ms. Cape assisted in streamlining data points within JustWare to be used in the Kentucky DPA Outcome Study through the Center for Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR) at the University of Kentucky, in addition to providing ongoing data validation for the study. In 2015, Ms. Cape became the first Alternative Sentencing Program Supervisor in the newly established Defender Services Branch of DPA’s Law Operations Division. While in this role, Ms. Cape along with Robert Walker, MSW, LCSW of the CDAR published the SFY 2015 Evaluation Report on DPA’s Alternative Sentencing Worker Program.