COURT HOUSE – More local history occurred when the second and third Cape May County women took oaths as Superior Court judges in an Oct. 5 ceremony at the historic county courthouse. With the new additions, nine of the judges in the vicinage are female.
To mark the solemnity of the occasion, and administer the oath to Christine Smith, state Supreme Court Associate Justice Anne Patterson traveled from Trenton. With Smith was her husband Richard Fellows and son Jack.
Patterson joined Appellate Court Judge Carmen Alvarez, the county’s first female Superior Court judge in 1989, as they shared the bench with Assignment Judge Julio Mendez, who presided at the stand-room-only event.
The Atlantic City Fire Department Sandpipers Pipes and Drums escorted the vicinage judges into the courtroom. The Cape May County Sheriff’s Department Color Guard posted the colors.
Performing the national anthem was The Neumann University Concert Chorale under the direction of Dr. Yukiko Ishida.
Mendez administered the oath to former Cape May County Surrogate M. Susan Sheppard. With her was her husband, Frank Faverzani, who held the Bible, and her children Nora and Mark. Frank was absent, at college. Also, there was an exchange student, Rafael Cortes Fernandez.
Sheppard, a Republican from Ocean City, serves in the Family Division in Court House.
Smith, a Democrat from Upper Township, serves in the Civil Division in Atlantic City. She recently presided over her first trial, said Mendez.
Both took oaths in private July ceremonies so they could undertake training to join the Atlantic-Cape May County Vicinage I peers on the bench.
Mendez noted the occasion was “a great day. We have added 18 new judges of the ones sitting in the last six years. It is a tremendous challenge and a great opportunity.”
The occasion was not a first in local history when two judges, from both political parties, took oaths.
It was April 6, 2016, when former county Republican Party chairman Michael Donohue and former county Democratic Party chairman James Pickering Jr. took oaths in the same courtroom.
Gov. Chris Christie filed nominations with the state Senate June 20 for the two Cape May County residents in a group of eight for Superior Court judgeships. In January, the governor signed a law that appropriated $9.3 million and added 20 Superior Court judges to the bench. The action was the result of the bail reform system that went into effect Jan. 1 of this year.
Michelle Devine-Hartnett, executive director of the Cape May County Bar Association, presented both judges with plaques from bar associations in the two counties.
Shortly after Sheppard and Smith took oaths, they donned judicial black robes and joined their peers “on the bench.”
Superior Court Judge John Rauh told the court he and Smith had a long history in the political arena. He was former county Democratic chairman. She was his second law clerk, he said.
Rauh noted that in the Civil Division, where she has been assigned, “Civil (Division) is papers up to here,” he said with a smile.
Donohue said of Sheppard, with whom he had worked in the political arena for a decade, she was “a foot soldier,” and recalled her, during a campaign telling him, “Being a woman is not my only qualification.” He recounted her public service from an assistant solicitor in Atlantic City to service on the Ocean City Library Commission and then Ocean City Council, then in 2010, she went on to become the county’s second female freeholder.
Sheppard served as Surrogate for five years. She was the county’s first elected female Surrogate.
Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) lauded both Smith and Sheppard. He noted that in this nation, “Regular folks have the ability to become judges.”
He further stated, “We are making history, not because they are women, but because they are so well qualified.”
Sheppard, whose mother watched her daughter take the oath, remembered her father was a judge in Philadelphia. She thanked her husband and children of whom she is “very proud” for their support in her new position.
Smith said her new post was “The best job in my profession.” She, too, thanked her family and recalled her son, Jack’s, only question when she asked his thoughts about his mother becoming a judge: ‘Will I still be able to buy video games?’ I thank my God and walk out his steps every day in my life.”
