Erie County Family Court judgeship draws four candidates for 10-year term
A 10-year seat on Erie County Family Court is being sought this year by a judge who is a nationally recognized family violence and abuse expert, by a veteran Buffalo judge with extensive experience in that area of the law and by two domestic and family-affairs lawyers.
The post pays $125,600 annually.
Family Court Judge Lisa Bloch Rodwin, 50, appointed to the bench April 11 by Gov. David Paterson, is seeking a full term on the court with the endorsement of the Democratic, Independence, Conservative and Working Families parties.
Rodwin, the state’s top domestic violence prosecutor for more than a decade until her appointment to the bench, is vying in the Sept. 9 Democratic and Republican party primaries against Buffalo City Judge E. Jeannette Ogden, Family Court attorney Barbara S. Nuchereno and attorney Michael T. Feeley.
Nuchereno, a registered Republican, is the lone challenger to Rodwin in the Independence Party primary.
Regardless of the outcome of the primaries, Rodwin will be on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Rodwin, Nuchereno and Feeley all are making their first runs at elective office.
Ogden, a Democrat who twice has been elected to the City Court bench, staged an unsuccessful run in 2000 for a State Supreme Court justice post. Ogden this year is seeking only the Democratic Party line in the general election.
Rodwin, the head of the Erie County district attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau for 13 years, created the state’s first Domestic Violence Bureau outside of New York City and made legal history in 2004 as the prosecutor in a nationally followed local domestic abuse case.
Rodwin’s conviction of Susan Still’s husband, Ulner Lee Still, 53, who had his children record his episodes of domestic, mental and physical abuse of his wife, sent him to prison for 36 years and landed Rodwin a number of national television appearances in recent years.
Tapes of the Still case are now used to train law enforcement officials on how to deal with domestic violence situations.
Currently assigned to the Family Court’s custody trial section, Rodwin is a law lecturer at both Canisius College and the University at Buffalo Law School. She assisted the State Legislature in toughening criminal penalties against child abusers.
She is a 1979 graduate of Rutgers University and a 1984 graduate of UB Law School.
Ogden, 52, a twice-elected Buffalo City Court judge who has handled more than 1,000 cases as an acting Erie County Family Court judge the past five years, is running unendorsed in her bid for the Democratic Party line.
Ogden, both a former assistant Erie County district attorney handling adult criminal prosecution and a former assistant in the Erie County attorney’s office, where she prosecuted domestic violence cases in Family Court, is an instructor at both UB Law School and Buffalo State College.
Ogden, the first African- American woman to serve as a Family Court judge in Western New York, was named an acting Erie County Court judge in 2001 to preside over domestic violence cases. In City Court, she presides over the Domestic Violence Court and handles cases in its Drug and Mental Health courts.
A 1977 graduate of Buffalo State College, Ogden graduated from UB Law School in 1983 and is current president of the UB Law Alumni. She is immediate past president of the Erie County Bar Foundation and a past president of both the Women Lawyers of WNY and the Minority Bar Association of WNY.
Ogden serves as a mentor to Buffalo high school, college and law school students. Her work with many local community organizations as a member and speaker resulted in her being elected to the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
Nuchereno, 47, a former law clerk to State Justice Sharon S. Townsend both when Townsend was administrator of all Family Courts in Western New York and after her appointment as administrative judge of the state’s Buffalo-based 8th Judicial District, is the only endorsed Republican Party candidate.
Nuchereno is a former State Supreme Court matrimonial referee dealing with child custody, visitation, support and domestic violence issues. Prior to joining Townsend’s court staff in 2000, she was a family and matrimonial law litigator locally for 10 years.
Nuchereno left Townsend’s staff in 2005 and is now senior court attorney for Erie County Family Court. A 1983 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Nuchereno, the mother of three, is a 1987 graduate of UB Law School.
Feeley, 41, a former adoption lawyer for the Baker Victory Services organization of Catholic Charities, litigated juvenile delinquency, child neglect, paternity, custody, support and other matters in Family Court before becoming an insurance industry attorney six years ago.
A 1989 honors graduate of the Unviversity of Notre Dame and a 1992 graduate of UB Law School, Feeley has an extensive record as a trial attorney and appellate litigator. A registered Democrat, Feeley is running in the primaries without party endorsements.
A former commissioner of the Connie Mack Little League of Amherst, Feeley also has coached youth softball, soccer and basketball teams and is an athletic director at St. Benedict parochial school in Amherst, where he lives with his wife and their three children.
The Bar Association of Erie County rated Rodwin, Ogden and Nuchereno “well-qualified,” its second-highest rating for judicial candidates and rated Feely “qualified.”
The Western New York chapter of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York gave both Ogden and Rodwin its highest overall rating of “outstanding,” Nuchereno its second highest rating of “highly qualified” and Feeley its “qualified” rating.
