2 to square off for Third Judicial District seat
A former Ulster County assistant DA faces a town of Colonie judge for a state Supreme Court Justice seat.
A former Ulster County assistant district attorney is facing off against a town of Colonie judge to replace retiring state Supreme Court Justice Karen Peters.
Julian D. Schreibman and Peter G. Crummey will appear on the ballot Nov. 7 in the race for Supreme Court justice in the Third Judicial District. The Third Judicial District comprises Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan and Albany counties.
Peters, an Ulster County resident, is retiring this year. New York mandates that state Supreme Court judges retire no later than the end of the year in which they turn 70.
Schreibman, 44, is an Ulster Park resident who received his juris doctor from Yale Law school in 1997. The father of three currently is a partner in the law firm of Wachtel Missry, LLP.
In 2012, he unsuccessfully sought election as congressman in the state’s 19th Congressional District, winning Ulster county but losing the district by 5.5 points.
“I have a 20-year career in public service and private practice,” Schreibman said in a statement. “I served as assistant general counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, where I received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for work on United States v. Osama bin Laden, the prosecution of four al Qaeda members for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa. As a federal prosecutor in New York, I led more than a dozen wire tap investigations of drug trafficking organizations, seizing more than 9 kilos of heroin (more than 250,000 doses) in a single day and capturing one of the leaders of the notoriously violent gang ‘MS-13.’”
“I then served as senior assistant district attorney here in Ulster County where I handled nearly every type of criminal case and oversaw a months-long grand jury investigation into government waste,” Schreibman said. “For most of the past decade, I have been in private practice where the
majority of my work is in state Supreme Court, including cases involving consumer fraud, complex commercial disputes, and disability rights.”
A Democrat, Schreibman has also been nominated by the Working Families Party.
Crummey, 61, is an Albany resident who received his juris doctor from Albany Law School. The father of five has been Colonie Town Justice for 18 years and is a private practice attorney.
He also previously served as an Albany County legislator.
Crummey said the decisions made in state Supreme
Court effect everyone living and working in New York.
“I have the background, qualifications and experience to serve in this critical position, including 18 years of service as Colonie town justice, helping to preside over one of the busiest municipal courts in New York state, and three decades of private legal practice representing thousands of clients throughout Upstate,” Crummey said in a statement. “At the request of the New York state Office of Court Administration, I’ve also been privileged to serve as acting city court judge for Albany, Cohoes, Hudson and Troy.”
“As judge, I have fairly resolved thousands of cases and currently serve as senior town justice and court administrator,” Crummey
said. “My peers also selected me for past service as president of the Albany County Bar Association.”
A Republican, Crummey has also been nominated by the Conservative, Independence and Reform parties.
Both Schreibman and Crummey were rated as “qualified” by the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions of the state Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department.
State Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms and generally preside over civil matters; divorce, separation and annulment proceedings; and sometimes criminal prosecutions of felonies.
Currently, state Supreme Court justices are paid $193,000 annually.