“All my life’s experiences have prepared me for this time,” said Dougherty Magistrate Judge Denise Marshall, who faces Chief Municipal Court Judge Willie Weaver on the nonpartisan superior court ballot Nov. 4.
A municipal court judge for four years, Marshall in 1996 was appointed by State Court Judge John Salter to be a magistrate judge.
The position, in addition to its duties of signing arrest and search warrants, holding bond hearings and setting bond amounts and holding bad check and eviction hearings, carries with it the designation of a state court judge and a superior court judge, Marshall said.
As an associate state court judge, she’s presided over criminal and civil trials and probation revocation hearings, and as a superior court judge, she’s heard family violence protective order cases, she said.
“I have truly come up through the judicial ranks of Albany and Dougherty County,” Marshall said.
A graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, Marshall said she’d preserve the dignity and respect of the judicial system.
“There is no cause or case so great to warrant a compromise of judicial integrity,” she said.
Also an Albany native, Weaver served in the U.S. Army for 10 years before completing college and law school at Mercer University.
Weaver, 51, sat down as he spoke, explaining that he was sick.
Weaver touted his trial experience, which began at the firm of Brown, Scoccimaro and Weaver in the early 1990s.
“I believe someone on the superior court bench should have some experience as a trial lawyer,” he said.
Since becoming Chief Municipal Judge for Albany in 2004, Weaver said he’d organized the office, moving cramped staff into individual offices, updated computer software and equipment and utilized an amnesty program to help rid the city of a $600,000 backlog in outstanding bench warrants.
He also serves as a city judge in Dawson, Sylvester and until last month, Warwick, and is an elected Dougherty school board member.
He was awarded an Albany Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award for his work on the school board changing the board’s mind about locating a new school on Home Drive, Weaver said.
“A person that works all the time is a person you ask to do things all the time,” he said.
But it will all have to come to an end if he’s elected to Superior Court, Weaver said.
Asked by Rotarian Bob Fay if it was acceptable for him to solicit votes from Dougherty School system employees, Weaver said, “I think it is.”
Asked what each of the candidates was looking forward to most and least, Marshall said she was looking forward to working in family courts, but less so to presiding over probation revocation hearings.
Weaver said he was looking forward to criminal and civil jury trials the most, and child support hearings the least.
The candidates have raised and spent comparable amounts on their campaigns, according to Oct. 2 disclosure reports filed with the State Ethics Commission.
Weaver has raised $43,529 in contributions and spent $36,864 on his campaign, while Marshall has raised $44,238 and spent $38,661, according to the reports.
