SUPREME COURT

The following are profiles of judges running for seats on the Supreme Court, in alphabetical order. Four of the candidates will be elected to 14-year terms. The Supreme Court covers both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

William J. Condon

      William J. Condon (D, R, I, C) is a graduate of SUNY-Albany and the Hofstra University School of Law. A former Suffolk County assistant district attorney, he prosecuted many high-profile criminal trials, including violent felonies and homicides.
      Prior to joining Maffei & Condon LLP as a partner, Condon served as a litigation team manager for State Farm's house counsel in Uniondale, where he supervised a staff of 19 attorneys and support staff in addition to carrying an active trial caseload. He supervised the office's First Party Unit, and has conducted dozens of examinations for the State Farm Auto and Fire companies, including commercial losses for the Special Investigations Unit. He has also handled subrogation litigation for State Farm.
      Condon is admitted to practice law in New York state and Massachusetts, as well as in the Eastern District of the United States District Court, and he is a graduate of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms National Academy. He has lectured for the Suffolk County Bar Association Academy of Law, notably on the issues of case valuation and reflex sympathetic dystrophy. He is a past chairman of the bar association's Personal Injury Defense Committee and has also served on the Bench Bar Committee.
      Condon is a manager for the Little League of the Islips and a coach in the St. Mary's CYO basketball program, and is a member of several fraternal and charitable organizations, including the Sons of Italy, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He is also a past trustee of the East Islip school board.

Kenneth A. Davis

      Judge Kenneth A. Davis (R), a longtime resident of Nassau County, has served on the state Supreme Court since he was elected in 1994. Before being nominated to run for the Supreme Court, he was elected to Nassau County District Court and served two years of a six-year term.
      Davis has also been a Nassau County assistant district attorney, deputy county attorney and deputy town attorney for the Town of Oyster Bay. In 1991 he was appointed to Oyster Bay's Landmarks Preservation Commission. Before taking the bench in 1993, he was a partner in the law firm Davis & Weil.
      Raised in Syosset, Davis graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in psychology and sociology in 1968. He earned a law degree from Akron University College of Law in 1971. In 1968 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and in 1977 he was honorably discharged as a captain from the Army Reserve.
      Davis is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Jewish Lawyers Association. He has received the prestigious George M. Estabrook distinguished service award from Hofstra University, and this year was honored by the Long Beach Lawyers' Association as its Man of the Year.

Jerry Garguilo

      Jerry Garguilo (D, I, C) graduated cum laude from St. Francis College in Pennsylvania in 1972 and from the Duquesne University School of Law in 1977.
      Since 1979, Garguilo has concentrated on negligence and commercial litigation. He has prosecuted cases in the Eastern and Southern districts of New York as well as in state Supreme Court venues in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, and presented briefs and argued appeals in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. From 1977 to 1979 he was involved in criminal prosecutions. Since 1991, Garguilo has been counsel to Gladstein & Isaacs in trials of negligence cases on Long Island.
      Garguilo was admitted to the New York and Pennsylvania bars and admitted to practice before the Eastern and Southern federal District Courts in 1977. He is a past president of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Suffolk County and the current president of the Suffolk County Criminal Defense Attorneys Association. He chairs the Suffolk County Bar Association's Unlawful Practice and District Court committees, and serves on the Judicial Screening Committee.

Hector D. LaSalle

      Hector D. LaSalle (D, I, C, WF) was born and raised in Suffolk and is a 1986 graduate of Brentwood High School. He earned his undergraduate degree from Penn State University in 1990 and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993. That year, he was appointed an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. From 1993 through 1998, he prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases ranging from weapons and narcotics to violent sexual crimes against children.
      In 1998, LaSalle became an associate at the law firm Ruskin, Moscou and Faltischek PC, where he specialized in creating corporate compliance programs for health care corporations. He represented numerous corporate entities before the United States Attorney's Office and the New York State Attorney General's Office.
      In 1999, LaSalle was appointed an assistant state attorney general by then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and he defended the state in a variety of civil actions, including medical malpractice suits against Stony Brook University Hospital.
      In 2002, LaSalle rejoined the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and was named the head of the Anti-Gang Unit. During his tenure he has overseen numerous gang-related criminal investigations. In 2003, he was appointed deputy bureau chief of the Special Investigations Bureau. He has tried numerous criminal cases, and overseen two wiretap investigations involving members of the Latin King Street gang.
      LaSalle has lectured on the status of Long Island street gangs to judges on the Suffolk County Family, Criminal and District courts. He has also spoken to the Suffolk County Criminal Bar Association as well as to various local school districts about the growing threat of gang violence on Long Island. He is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association and the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association, which he has also served as president.
      This year LaSalle was found qualified for election to the Supreme Court by the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions for the Second Judicial Department. He was nominated by the Democratic, Conservative, Independence and Working Families parties to run for the Supreme Court in New York's 10th Judicial District. His candidacy has been endorsed by the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, the Detective's Association and the Superior Officer's Association.

Robert A. Lifson

      Judge Robert A. Lifson (R), 58, of Huntington, was elected to the state Supreme Court, 10th Judicial District, in November 1994, and was appointed to the Constitutional Bench as an associate, where he has served since Feb. 5, 2008.
      Since May 2004, he has been designated as an additional justice of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, Second Judicial Department.
      Lifson was appointed to the Supreme Court's Appellate Term, 9th and 10th Judicial District, from 2003 to 2004, and was assigned to Civil Trial Parts from 2001 to 2004. He served as supervising justice of the Dedicated Matrimonial Part from 1997 to 2001, and was assigned to the Tax Certification & Condemnation Part in 2000 and 2004.
      Lifson has been an adjunct professor at SUNY-Stony Brook, and served as chief counsel to State Sen. Norman Levy in 1993-94. He was responsible for reviewing any bills of concern to Levy and supervising special inquiries of the Senate's transportation committee regarding public authorities providing transportation services.

Edward A. Maron

      Edward A. Maron (D, C, WF) was appointed an Acting County Court Judge in November 2005, and was also re-elected Nassau County District Court Judge that year. He had previously been elected a Nassau County District Court Judge in November 1999. He is endorsed by the Democratic, Conservative and Working Families Parties.
      Maron graduated from Yeshiva College in 1961 and St. John's University School of Law in 1964. His work experience includes 36 years as a practicing attorney, 27 years as an arbitrator for the New York City Civil Court and Nassau County District Court, 12 years in the New York State Supreme Court as a hearing officer and five years as an administrative law judge for the New York City Department of Finance.
      Maron has served as president, (2003-04), vice president (2002-03) and treasurer (2001-02) of the Nassau County District Court Judges Association, and was president of the New York State District Court Judges Association from 2003 to 2005. He was the recipient of The Hon. Edward J. Hart Jr. Memorial Award from the Fraternal Order of Court Officers in April 2004, and the Presidents Award from the Italian American Court Officers Association in October 2005.
      Judge Maron has been endorsed by many organizations, including the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers; the PBA of the Nassau County Police Department; the NCPD's Superior Officers Association and Detectives Association; the Sheriff Officers Association; the Nassau County Court Officers Benevolent Association; the Fraternal Order of Court Officers of New York State; the Italian-American Court Officers of Nassau County; the Fraternal Order of Police and the Nassau Police Conference.

Family Court judicial races

Carnell T. Foskey

      Republican candidate Carnell T. Foskey (R,I,WF) is running for re-election as a judge in Nassau County's Family Court. Foskey has served as a judge in the court for nearly 10 years, and as supervising judge for the last three years.
      During his tenure, Foskey has implemented a number of initiatives -- including the Self-Represented Division, to assist litigants who do not have legal representation, and mediation services, to help families reach a fair and expeditious outcome -- with the aim of improving the quality of justice for those who appear in the court.
      Before he came to family court, Foskey spent seven years as a judge in the county's District Court. In 1988 he ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly.
      Foskey is also active in his home community of Lakeview. He is a board member of the Union Baptist Church and the Union Senior Citizen Plaza Inc., and a member of the We Care Committee and the Peninsula Counseling Center.
      Foskey holds a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, a master's degree in tax law from Boston University and a law degree from California Western School of Law. He is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association.

Challenger Robin Kent

      Democratic Family Court candidate Robin Kent (D,C) has dedicated her 18-year career in law to protecting the rights of children in the arenas of family and education law. Now a solo practitioner, she spent her early working years as an attorney for New York City's Administration for Children Services, prosecuting child abuse and neglect cases in Family Court. Now she represents children in Nassau County Family Court in custody, visitation, juvenile delinquency and abuse and neglect cases.
      Kent also specializes in Education Law, as both an advocate for children and families and as an Impartial Hearing Officer. As an advocate, she focuses on representing families with children who require special education services. Kent, who lives in Jericho, has also volunteered her time with the Special Education Parent Teacher Association for the Jericho Public Schools.
      She has lectured probation officers on how to obtain services from public schools, and spoken to parents of special education students about their children's right to a free and appropriate public education.
      Kent earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at SUNY-Binghamton and a law degree at the St. John's University School of Law.

COUNTY COURT

NORMAN ST. GEORGE

      Judge Norman St. George (R, D, I ,C, WF) is running unopposed for a seat in Nassau County Court. County Court judges serve 10-year terms.
      St. George was appointed a County Court judge by Gov. David Paterson in May, and was immediately designated an acting Supreme Court justice by the administrative judge of Nassau County. He continues to preside over all of the county's hearings and trials involving cases of driving while intoxicated.
      In 2004, St. George was appointed a County District Court judge, and was elected to the same position the following year. He established the county's first Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Part, over which he presided for two years.
      St. George has presided over 165 trials, and has said that he strives to administer fair and expeditious justice to all who come before him. He has frequently appeared on both Court Television and Fox News as a trial commentator.
      St. George's family moved to Long Island when he was young, and he attended Adelphi University in Garden City, where he majored in accounting and graduated on the Dean's List. He attended Hofstra University School of Law on a full academic scholarship, and received his law degree in 1988.