By Tom Momberg
Three county Supreme Court justice seats and three Civil Court justice seats are up for grabs on Election Day next Tuesday, with Queens District Attorney Richard Brown also seeking re-election to what would be his sixth-consecutive full term.
All registered Queens voters will be eligible to vote in any three of the races, but most of the votes will likely be cast in eastern and southeast Queens, where off-year Assembly and City Council races are going to get the greatest turnout.
Queens County Supreme Court Justices Martin Ritholtz, Peter O’Donoghue and Duane Hart are seeking re-election, squaring off against Brooklyn attorney Anthony Caronna in an attempt to retain their incumbent judgeships.
Ritholtz, who is running on Democrat, Republican and Conservative party lines, was first elected to a civil term for the judgeship in Queens County in 2002. He began his career as a clerk of the Justice Ministry of Jerusalem in Israel while finishing his law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Law, where he graduated in 1974. He got his B.A. from Columbia College in Manhattan in 1968.
O’Donoghue, running on Democratic and Conservative party lines, was also first elected to the county Supreme Court in 2002, prior to which he had served as a city Civil Court judge since 1996. He received his law degree from St. John’s University before seeking a judgeship.
Hart is running only on the Democratic Party line, having served as a Supreme Court judge alongside Ritholtz and O’Donoghue since he was elected in 2002. He was appointed as judge to the city Civil Court in 2000 following his graduation from Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.
Caronna, running on a Republican ticket to replace one of the three justices, set up his private practice in Downtown Brooklyn 22 years ago and is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School.
Queens County Civil Court Judge Maureen Healy is the only candidate in the civil court race seeking re-election. But five other attorneys are in the running for three judgeships up for grabs, including Healy’s. She is running on the Democratic line.
Healy has served in her position since 2006, following her election the year before. She got her start in Queens as a principal law clerk to a justice of the Queens County Supreme Court from 1992 until she was elected. She is a product of St. John’s College and St. John’s Law School in Maryland in 1975.
The other five candidates are attorneys Joseph Kasper, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Queens County Supreme Court in 2009 and again in 2011, Kevin Hanratty, Michael O’Reilly, Laurentina McKetney Butler and Ushir Pandit-Durant.
Kasper, a product of St. John’s University School of Law, is an Ozone Park-based family and criminal lawyer with his own private practice.
Hanratty, an attorney with a private practice as well as a state-certified public accountant and compliance officer for JPMorgan Chase, is a graduate of Fordham Law School. He studied business administration and accounting at CUNY-Baruch College before that.
O’Reilly, of the Manhattan firm O’Reilly Stoutenburg Richards LLP, specializes in commercial litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property, family law and litigation. He received his law degree from Fordham.
Kasper, Hanratty and O’Reilly are running on the Republican, Conservative and Working Families party lines.
Butler is currently a principal law clerk for the state Unified Court System and has a degree from New York Law School. He is a Democratic candidate.
Pandit-Durant is currently an assistant Queens DA who also has a degree from New York Law School. He is also running as a Democrat.
Queens DA Brown is running unopposed for another four-year term. He was appointed to fill a vacancy in 1991 and was elected and re-elected five times to be the county’s longest-serving DA.
Reach reporter Tom Momberg by e-mail at tmomb
