Judge Williams won’t seek re-election
Known for tough talk from bench; would have reached state’s mandatory retirement age less than halfway into next term
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams will retire from the bench at the end of his term in December, he announced Friday.
“After careful consideration, I have decided not to seek re-election,” he wrote in a statement.
“This is unquestionably one of the most difficult decisions I have ever been compelled to make,” he said. “Serving the people of Ulster County has been the focus of my entire career, as an assistant district attorney, district attorney and now county judge.
Williams, a Republican, was elected to a 10-year term on the County Court bench in 2009. Before winning the judgeship, he was Ulster County district attorney from 1999 to 2007 and chief assistant district attorney before that.
“I have never taken one day for granted and truly appreciate the opportunities I have had to give back to the community where I was born and raised,” he said.
Under state law, a county court judge must step down at the end of the year in which he turns 70. Williams will turn 70 in March 2023, meaning that if he ran this fall and was re-elected, he would have been forced to retire four years into his 10year term.
In January, Democrat Bryan Rounds, a Kingston
defense lawyer and assistant public defender who practices in Ulster County Court, announced he is running for county judge.
A town of Ulster resident, Rounds is a former Albany County assistant district attorney who has practiced criminal law for 25 years, including the last 19 as a criminal defense attorney.
No Republican has entered the race for Ulster County judge.
Williams, of Kingston, has developed a reputation
as a tough judge who hands down stiff sentences and often speaks harshly in the process.
In September 2014, he said a convicted child molester had a “self-absorbed sick personality.” In December 2012, he told a convicted rapist: “There is no sentence that I can give you that properly and appropriately addresses your wrong. That punishment, I imagine, will be dealt you by others where you are going.”
And in March 2012, he
told a man who had been convicted of burglary: “If I allowed my personal feelings to persuade my judgment ... if the death penalty were on the books, I would impose it for you.”
Williams said in a 2014 interview with the Freeman that it was his intention to “send messages” from the bench.
Among high-profile cases over which Williams has presided were trials arising from the 2010 killing of Charles “C.J.” King Jr. in Kingston
by local gang members, the 2014 beating death of 2-yearold Mason DeCosmo in Milton by the boyfriend of the boy’s mother, and the 2014 fatal bludgeoning in Marlboro of Nicholas Pascarella Sr. by his son.
Williams also presided over the three trials of Kingston dentist Gilberto Nunez in 2016. Nunez was acquitted of killing his lover’s husband but was convicted of multiple charges in two unrelated cases that did not involve violence.
Williams’ retirement announcement comes on the heels of the Feb. 6 announcement by Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright that he will not run for re-election.
Attorney David Clegg of Woodstock is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for district attorney. No Republicans have announced their candidacy for the position, but Carnright has endorsed Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Kavanagh for the post.