The Kings County Democratic Party Executive Committee on Sunday endorsed incumbent Civil Court Judges Frederick C. Arriaga, Carolyn E. Wade and Robin K. Sheares along with Attorneys Connie M. Melendez, David C. Pepper and Patria Frias-Colon for the open six bench seats on the Brooklyn Civil Court.
The executive board is made up of the 42 Democratic District Leaders from around the borough. Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio said the committee almost always chooses the incumbents and then take the other candidates from a list of applications that have been screened.
Melendez is the Principal Law Clerk for Justice Marsha L. Steinhardt at New York State Supreme Court, Kings County. In this capacity, she researches, analyzes and resolves issues of law, procedure and evidence arising from medical malpractice, negligence and foreclosure actions.
In this capacity, Melendez is involved in all aspects of trials including preparing jury charges and verdict sheets. She drafts decisions in response to substantive motions and resolves motions and discovery disputes between attorneys. She participates in pre-trial conferences to negotiate and settle cases.
Melendez graduated from Rutgers University magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, received a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 1986. She is a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the Brooklyn Bar Association. She is on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association and the Association of Law Secretaries for Supreme and Surrogates Courts. She is also a member of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn, the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Brooklyn, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and the Brooklyn Brandeis Society.
Pepper is the Principal Law Clerk to Civil Court Judge Martin M. Solomon where he participates in all aspects of trials, hearings and proceedings. He is fully responsible for conducting and scheduling discovery conferences for an inventory of over four hundred commercial cases, and conducted and participated in settlement conferences in commercial, civil and landlord-tenant matters.
He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton and also holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Frias-Colon currently serves as the Brooklyn Borough Chief for the New York City Law Department’s Family Court Division where she supervises oversees the juvenile delinquency practice. Prior to that, she served the NYC Department of Education as Agency Counsel in 1998 and later promoted to Assistant Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor. Previously, Patria served as Assistant District Attorney in Kings County and an Adjunct Professor with St. John’s University School of Education.
She graduated from Hofstra University School of Law where she was awarded a Public Justice scholarship, was a member of the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA) and Black Law Students Association (BLSA) where she served as president of LALSA. She attained her Bachelor’s from the University of Rochester where she co-founded El Tiempo Latino, the Latino Students’ Voice and was a member of the Latino and African-American students organizations where she served as president for two years of the Latino students’ organization.
Frias-Colon was born in the Dominican Republic and later brought to New York by her parents. After graduating Bushwick HS and college, she married Robert Colón and together are the proud parents of Lida, Nairobi and Galen.
Getting the county endorsement means that these candidates will get support from district leaders and the County Democratic Apparatus in petitioning and campaigning. It does not, however, guarantee a victory.
“I hear a few people who didn’t go through county are also running,” said one Democratic District Leader source. “Just because you got county doesn’t mean you win. Odessa Kennedy beat Melendez in the recent Civil Court Judge race and she (Melendez) had county support. County support doesn’t mean they don’t have to get out there and work. They can still lose.”
The primary is Sept. 12 and Civil Court Judges are elected to 10-year terms.
