THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180501
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
Two years after black leaders in Chesapeake protested the absence of African Americans on the bench, the city was assured Friday of getting its first black judge.
On the same day, Portsmouth's first woman judge was sworn in and Norfolk's judiciary got a virtual face lift with four new judges assured of appointment or promotion.
The news came Friday from Richmond, where Democratic lawmakers have come together behind specific candidates for judgeships.
The appointments won't be made until next week, but candidates who are backed by their cities' Democratic lawmakers are guaranteed of getting the jobs. Democrats control both houses of the General Assembly.
On Friday, the legislature's court committees interviewed candidates for judgeships. In Chesapeake and Norfolk, some choices have already been made. Other choices have been narrowed:
In Chesapeake, S. Bernard Goodwyn was assured of becoming the city's first black judge.
Goodwyn, 33, is a partner with the Norfolk law firm of Willcox & Savage. He was the only candidate interviewed in Richmond for an opening in General District Court.
He will replace Judge V. Thomas Forehand Jr., who was elevated to Circuit Court last month.
Goodwyn's appointment is a victory for black leaders who complained bitterly in 1993 that Chesapeake has no black judges, even though the city's population is about one-fourth African American.
In 1993, an unexpected opening came in General District Court with a judge's abrupt resignation. Forehand got the job, and black leaders complained that they had been ignored again.
Chesapeake has eight judges. All are white men.
This year, several blacks were proposed for a possible new judgeship in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. When Forehand was promoted to Circuit Court, it created another opening in General District Court.
Goodwyn was recommended by the Chesapeake Bar Association. He has been a substitute judge since 1992, and is at the University of Virginia as a research associate law professor.
``I think they definitely need an African American on the bench in Chesapeake, more because of people's perceptions than anything else,'' Goodwyn said Friday. ``It's important that people perceive the courts as fair.''
Meanwhile, the new judgeship in juvenile court looks iffy. ``Given the current budget situation, that may not be deemed the highest priority, although there is a tremendous need for it,'' Del. Jerrauld C. Jones said Friday. ``There's no guarantee Gov. Allen is going to sign that legislation.''
Five candidates were interviewed Friday: City Attorney Ronald Hallman, Assistant City Attorney Leonard Brown, federal prosecutor Laura Everhart, and private attorneys Eileen Olds and Timothy Wright.
March Cromuel, president of the Chesapeake chapter of the NAACP, said Friday he was ``half-way happy'' - encouraged by Goodwyn's prospects, disappointed that a second black judge might not be appointed. ``I feel fairness has not been done as of yet,'' Cromuel said.
In Norfolk, lawmakers have agreed to promote three judges to Circuit Court from lower courts: Luther Edmonds, Marc Jacobson and Everett A. Martin Jr.
They will replace three retiring judges: Thomas McNamara, Robert Stewart and Alfred Whitehurst.
Edmonds and Jacobson hear civil cases in General District Court. Martin is in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Only two of the three were endorsed for the jobs by the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association. Jacobson was deemed ``highly qualified.'' Martin was deemed ``qualified.'' Edmonds did not submit his name to the bar association for consideration.
Edmonds, 51, is former executive director of the Tidewater Legal Aid Society, which provides legal services to the poor. He has been a judge since 1988.
Jacobson has been a judge since 1990. He was appointed after 31 years in private practice. He is past chairman of the Tidewater General District Court Judges Association.
Martin, 42, also has been a judge since 1990. Before that, he spent eight years in private practice and two as a Norfolk prosecutor.
These three promotions will create three new openings on lower courts.
Norfolk's legislators have settled on a candidate to replace Martin in juvenile court: Joan C. Skeppstrom, 56, a sole practitioner in criminal and domestic law.
Skeppstrom has been a divorce commissioner since 1990 and is a certified family mediator. She is president of the local chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association, and was a former member of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
Skeppstrom was not endorsed for a judgeship by the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association, even though she submitted her name. Last year, however, she got a ``qualified'' rating from the same group, and barely missed the same rating this year.
Meanwhile, no decision has been made for three openings in General District Court, to replace Edmonds, Jacobson and retiring Judge Reid Spencer.
On Friday, the legislature's court committees interviewed four candidates for Edmonds' and Jacboson's seats: Ray W. Dezern Jr., Katherine Howe Jones, Joseph P. Massey and Louis A. Sherman. The only new name is Jones, an assistant city attorney who did not submit herself for consideration to the bar association.
In Portsmouth, Alotha C. Willis became the city's first woman judge.
Willis, a 35-year-old prosecutor, was sworn in Friday before a packed courtroom in Portsmouth's Circuit Court. She replaces Judge Von L. Piersall Jr. in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
The legislature promoted Piersall to Circuit Court. He, too, took over his new job this week.
Piersall, 56, is a veteran jurist. His first judicial appointment was in 1971, when he was Portsmouth's commonwealth's attorney. He has been reappointed several times since then.
Willis has been with the commonwealth's attorney's office for 8 1/2 years.
``I feel a great deal of pride to be standing here as the first female judge in the city of Portsmouth but also as the first African-American female judge,'' Willis said.
In Virginia Beach, prospects for a new judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court seem dim.
The Virginia Beach Bar Association has endorsed Bobby W. Davis for the job, but funding for the new judgeship is doubtful. It is included in the Senate budget, but is not in the House budget. MEMO: Staff writer Denise Watson contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff
PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST WOMAN JUDGE
Helen and Charles Willis were with their daughter, Alotha Willis,
when she was sworn in as a Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
judge in Portsmouth on Friday.
by CNB