Jaime Rios is a
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
on the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...
for
Queens County. Prior to sitting on the Supreme Court, Judge Rios served on the
New York City Civil Court
The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for case ...
and the Housing Court. Judge Rios holds a
B.S. degree from
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
, a
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, and a
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
degree from
Fordham University School of Law
Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city.
According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...
. Following law school, Judge Rios was a
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
in
Kings County Kings County or King's County may refer to:
Places Canada
*Kings County, New Brunswick
*Kings County, Nova Scotia
* Kings County, Prince Edward Island
** King's County (electoral district), abolished in 1892
Ireland
* County Offaly, formerly call ...
and later an attorney for the
New York City Police Department
The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
. He also teaches
landlord/tenant law at Fordham as an adjunct professor. He is also a co-chair of Fordham's Minority Mentorship Program for law students.
Judge Rios retired from the bench in December 2013. Many attorneys mourned his retirement, noting that he was a consistent and fair jurist whose understanding of the law was generally above reproach.
Tyronne Johnson case
In 2005, Judge Rios' conduct in the second murder trial of Tyronne Johnson came under scrutiny. Johnson's first conviction for the murder of nightclub owner Leroy Vann was overturned by Judge Rios when it was revealed that a prosecutor lied about the whereabouts of a defense witness. Judith Memblatt, the judge's former law clerk, accused him of improperly coaching the prosecutor in the second trial, Eugene Riebstein.
[7online.com: Did Judge Tip Scales in Murder Case? 11/15/05](_blank)
/ref> Based on Memblatt's allegations, Johnson's defense attorney Ron Kuby
Ronald L. Kuby (born July 31, 1956) is an American criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, radio talk show host, and television commentator. He has hosted radio programs on WABC (AM) in New York City and Air America radio.
Kuby has defended ...
sought to overturn this second conviction.blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
ger highly critical of the New York state judiciary as a whole. In October 2006, Judge Matthew D'Emic denied Johnson's motion to overturn the conviction, finding no misconduct on Rios' part.''People v. Johnson''
Decision & Order.
See also
*
List of Hispanic and Latino American jurists
This is a list of Hispanic/Latino Americans who are or were judges, magistrate judges, court commissioners, or administrative law judges. If known, it will be listed if a judge has served on multiple courts.
Other topics of interest
* List ...
*
List of first minority male lawyers and judges in New York
This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in New York. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are other distinctions such as the first minority men in their state ...
References
External links
Hon. Jaime Rios New York State Unified Court System
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rios, Jaime
Fordham University School of Law alumni
New York state court judges
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Hispanic and Latino American judges