The Henderson County District Attorney’s office has a new prosecutor to handle the backlog of CPS cases.

Sheri Shepherd of Allen was sworn in Tuesday in Judge Carter Tarrance’s 392nd District Courtroom. She comes from a corporate law firm in Plano, with a passion for children, and seeing that they are being taken care of.

“I am really excited about having Sheri,” District Attorney Scott McKee said. “I was very impressed with, not only her resume, but her passion for children. She will be a huge asset for our office.”

Shepherd has been an attorney for six years, but took a bit of a different path to get to where she is today.

“I always knew I wanted to be an attorney,” she said. “It wasn’t until 1988 that I was able to attend college.”

She grew up part of the time in the Dallas area, and the other part in Corpus Christi. In 1988 she was chosen to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and that slowed down some of her plans.

“When you are a cheerleader for the Cowboys you have to work full-time, or go to school full time, and there was just not enough time in the day to go to school, and work and be a cheerleader, so I had to work.”

That put her schooling on hold, and she was working as a secretary in an office in Dallas. She later became a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines after her year as a cheerleader was over.

“Right after the season I married, and had a daughter,” she said. “I really took advantage of my youth, and was able to land some jobs in the fashion industry.”

For several years Shepherd traveled the world and worked the fashion and magazine industry before deciding to go back to school.

“When I turned 26, I decided it was time to go back to school,” she said. “I got out of the fashion industry, and enrolled in the University of Houston at Clear Lake, and graduated.”

It took her about two years to be accepted to law school. She indicated that she always wanted to do pro-bono work, but after becoming an attorney, she knew that wouldn’t pay the bills.

“The main reason I went to law school at the time was I wanted to do pro-bono work for women and children,” she said. “I figured out pretty quick it would be hard to do that and eat, plus I had my daughter to take care of, so I went to work in corporate law.”

Getting to work with children is what attracted Shepherd to Athens. She has relatives who live in the Tool and Seven Points areas, and she remembers coming down every year while she was growing up.

“This area is just beautiful,” she said. “I remember coming down, and seeing the lake when I was growing up. Getting to work with children is a passion of mine, and I am really excited to get the chance to help families, as well as kids in this county.”

McKee said the new addition came when he did some shuffling in the office, and moved one of his prosecutors to felony cases.

“I really want all of our staff to get a chance to work the felony-case load, so when we did that, we had an opening.”

Shepherd said she will find a temporary place to live for now, but once the school year is over, she said her and her husband and kids will relocate to Henderson County.