State Supreme Court

In addition to County Court, voters will be asked to select 8 individuals for Supreme Court, New York State 10th Judicial District. Among those running are Thomas Whelan, a former Babylon Town Attorney; Madeleine Fitzgibbon of Copiague, a District Court Judge; Patrick Barton, of Babylon Village, a District Court Judge, and William LaMarca of Massapequa, an attorney and former president of the Massapequa School Board.

Thomas Whelan

Whelan grew up in the south Bronx and moved to North Babylon. He received full scholarships to Columbia University where he was a member of the rowing team and Rugby Club. He graduated from  Brooklyn Law School and returned to North Babylon, where he joined the North Babylon Fire Department and was an EMT on the ambulance crew for eight years. For more than 15 years, he has been a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Babylon.

He and his wife Theresa are active in church activities in Wading River where they have made their home. The couple adopted two children from Russia.

Whelan was Town Attorney under former Supervisor Arthur Pitts and served in that capacity for two years. For the past nine years, he has practiced with a Riverhead law form and serves in a supervisory role as Principal Court Attorney in the Supreme Court Law Department.

Judge Fitzgibbon

Fitzgibbon was appointed to Supervising Judge of the District Court in January, 2000, and Acting County Court Judge in 1998. She won a six year term to County Court in 1997.

"I love the administrative duties of the Court," said Fitzgibbon who was tapped for the post by Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti. "I’ve had a wonderful year, and I was very honored when asked to run for Supreme Court."

Over the past year, Fitzgibbon has worked to put Suffolk County’s first Domestic Violence court on line. She attended conferences as part of Judge Prudenti’s statewide initiative to address the unique problems of domestic violence in the County.

"We had a policy implemented under former County Executive Patrick Halpin that was pro arrest in instances of domestic violence, but Judge Prudenti recognized that these cases are unique in that the victim often doesn’t want to prosecute the offender," said Fitzgibbon. "Because of that it can often be frustrating in dealing with these victims unless judges are educated about and understand the effects of domestic violence on the victims."

The Domestic Violence Court is up and running and will, said Fitzgibbon, address this special problem in a new and innovative way. "As always, Suffolk is among the first as it is in many respects," she said.

Fitzgibbon received her law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1982. She is a member of the Suffolk Count B ar Association, the Columbian Lawyers and the Suffolk County Criminal Bar Association. She was named Judge of the Year by that organization in 2000. She is also a member of several local organizations in Copiague such as the Kiwanis and Ladies Auxiliary, Sons of Italy, Brumidi Lodge #2211.

Judge Patrick Barton

Barton has been serving on District Court for almost 11 years. He has lived in Babylon Village for 33 years and is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the S.C. Bar Association, the Babylon Beautification Society, the

Babylon Booster Club. He is a member of St. Joseph’s R. C. Church, Babylon.

With more than 35 years of legal experience, Barton said he enjoys his work in the bench very much. "I think I am ready for even more challenging cases," said Barton.

Supreme Court handles both civil and criminal cases including felonies, matrimonial and negligence cases.

Barton graduates from St. John’s University with a degree in mathematics and earned his law degree from St. John’s School of Law. He had a private practice and served as Deputy Town Attorney in the Town of Babylon, with the S.C. Legal Aid Society and was a former Suffolk County Special assistant and an assistant District Attorney for the County.

William LaMarca

LaMarca, an attorney with a practice in Garden City, is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He is a graduate of City College of New York and St. John’s University School of Law. He and his wife June have three children, Lauren, William II and Erik.

In addition to his work on the school board, LaMarca is active with the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce, the Massapequa Rotary Club and the Fire Fighters Monument Committee. He is a member of the speakers panel for the Nassau County Bar Association and the Plaintiff’s Round table Committee, where he served as chair. He is also an arbitrator with the Nassau County District Court Small Claims. He has a general law practice dealing in personal injury, matrimonial, criminal and real estate cases.

"My work as President of the Board of Education of Massapequa School District and as President of the Chamber of Commerce has given me the experience to deal with community concerns at the grass roots level," he said. "My experience is broad enough to equip me for the intense nature of the issues with which a Supreme Court Justice must deal."

Also running on the Democratic line are Michelle Woodard, a liberal with Democratic cross endorsement, Ira Raab, Supervising Judge of District Court, Nassau County; John Bivona of Huntington; Sandra Sgroi, a District Court Judge from Smithtown, and Richard Ambro of Wading River, a legal aid attorney andStephen Grossman a Suffolk County Legal Aid Attorney from North East Hampton.

Republican candidates for the 8 seats open are Gail Prudenti of Surrogate Court; Suffolk; Peter Cohalan, an incumbent of Sayville; Madeleine Fitzgibbon of Copiague, a District Court Judge; Patrick Barton of Babylon Village, a District Court Judge; Sal Alamia a District Court Judge of Islip, Thomas Feinman of Oyster Bay and Ruth Balkin.

In addition, Sgroi, Whelan, Bivona, Raab and Ambro are running on the Independence line. Running on the Conservative line are Balking, Cohalan, D’Agastino, Prudenti, Feinman, Whelan, Zimmer and Randolph W. Spelman of Northport.

All the Democrats were endorsed by the Working Families party and all the Republicans, except for D’Agastino are running on the Right to Life Line. Also running on that line is Raab.

The Green Party did not endorse any candidates.