Rockville Centre resident named top county judge

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A Rockville Centre resident has been appointed as Administrative Judge of Nassau County, taking on the responsibility of day-to-day oversight of the county’s judicial system.

The Chief Judge of the State of New York appointed Justice Thomas Adams, 65, on Jan. 18. As administrative judge of the county, Adams is in charge of the supervision of nearly 100 justices and judges, as well as more than 1,000 court employees assigned to six courthouses.

“It’s an honor to be given the opportunity to serve the residents of Nassau County as administrative judge,” Adams said. “Integrity, fairness and accountability will be the cornerstones of my administration.”

According to Adams, the administrative position is particularly important in Nassau County because it has a high volume of cases for a suburban county. Adams said that some of the case numbers are comparable to city counties.

Adams said that it is his duty to keep the court system running as efficiently as possible.

“The judges here are professional and they know what has to be done,” Adams said. “We have really good people here. You don’t do this job on your own.”

According to Director of Community Relations Daniel Bagnuola, Adams has served in the New York State Court System for more than 30 years. Adams has been an assistant district attorney in Nassau County before began his career in the court system as a law secretary to County Court Judge Marvin Goodman in 1981.

Adams first became a judge in 1987 when he was elected to the Nassau County District Court, and he was then elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 1992.

In 2001, Adams was appointed to the appellate division in the second judicial department, where he served until his appointment to the Court of Claims in 2006 by Governor George Pataki. Adams was reelected to the Supreme Court in 2011.

Adams is a graduate of New England School of Law, and has a license to fly planes. He has lived in Rockville Centre with is wife for more than 40 years.

Though the position does not have a term limit, there is currently an age limit of 70.