Connie Melendez topped a list of 11 attorneys in being elected to one of five open Kings County Civil Court Judge seat.
The others elected to the bench were Robin Sheares, who was re-elected as a sitting judge to the bench, Patria Frias-Colon, Sandra Roper and Ellen Edwards.
Melendez, who immigrated while still an infant with her parents to the United States as a Cuban refugee, first went into social work before graduated from Brooklyn Law School and becoming an attorney. For the past eight years has been a principal law clerk to Judge Marsha Steinhardt of the New York State Supreme Court.
She received 76,310 votes or 15.3% of the electorate in the Democratic Primary. Sheares came in second with 65,182 or 13% of the vote, Frias-Colon received 53,066 or 10.6% of the vote, Roper received 49,352 or 9.9% of the vote and Edwards received 49,066 or 9.8% of the vote.
Narrowly missing being re-elected was sitting Judge Frederick Arriaga, who came in sixth place in the voting.
In the Sixth Municipal District Civil Court judge race, Elena Baron was elected with 10,556 votes or 39.3% of the electorate beating back challengers Rupert Barry, Hamalee Patel and Derefim Neckles.
In other judicial news, City Council members Jumaane Williams and David Greenfield last week honored Fifth Municipal Judicial Civil Court Judge Rachel “Ruchie’ Freier with a City Council Proclamation last week in the City Council Chambers.
Freier, who was first elected in 2016, is the first Hasidic Jewish woman to be elected as a civil court judge in New York State, and the first Hasidic woman to serve in public office in United States history. She is currently assigned as a criminal court judge.
