Former deputy Wisc. State Public Defender dies.

• Date: 31 March 2004

Byline: Jane Pribek

Virginia A. Pomeroy, the former deputy Wisconsin State Public Defender, lost her seven-year battle with cancer on March 21. She died peacefully at her home in Germantown. She was 51 years old.

Pomeroy, a California native, also lived in Washington D.C. and Minnesota while growing up. She attended the University of Minnesota Law School with the notion of doing "people's law," she told Wisconsin Law Journal two years ago, because, "I get sort of a visceral reaction to people not being treated fairly."

After completing her J.D. in 1981, she joined the State Public Defender's Office as a trial attorney in Eau Claire. In 1984, she transferred to the Milwaukee Appellate Office, and became its director 10 years later. In 1997, she joined the public defender administrative team, serving as the agency's legal counsel and later as deputy. She resigned the latter...