St. Croix’s legal community gathered Wednesday for the investiture ceremony of Judges Douglas A. Brady and Denise Hinds Roach. During the event at the R. H. Amphlett Leader Justice Complex, the two newly minted judges took their oaths of office, received their gowns and gavels, and officially became members of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands.
In his opening remarks, Judge Harold Willocks told Brady and Roach that they were joining one of the finest judicial systems in the United States. He compared the system to a teenager experiencing growing pains, but expressed confidence that it would continue to grow into something terrific.
Willocks warned the new judges that the cases would not be easy and that half the people who appeared before them would walk away upset, but he urged them not to be deterred by criticism.
“Someone always has something to say. I learned that early on. You can’t please everyone,” he said.
Willocks ended his speech by personally thanking the judges for taking their posts because it meant he was no longer the new guy in the courthouse.
“I don’t have to worry about people referring to me behind closed doors as ‘that damn rookie judge,’” he said. “Now they’ll just call me ‘that damn judge.’”
Both Brady and Roach were nominated by Gov. John deJongh Jr. and approved by the Legislature late last year.
Brady has been a lawyer on St. Croix for more than 30 years. For the majority of that time, he has engaged in a private general practice with his partner, attorney Ned Jacobs.
Brady has also served as a neutral arbitrator and mediator in several legal disputes.
Roach has been an assistant United States attorney on St. Croix since 1995. During that time, she has prosecuted cases in the areas of violent crime, public corruption, drug trafficking, economic crime and child sexual exploitation.
Roach said she is most interested in cases involving children and families, and that this passion led her to be nominated to take over the family division of the Superior Court.
Roach’s nomination was initially opposed by the Virgin Islands Bar Association, a point mentioned by a number of presenters during the ceremony. VIBA raised concerns that Roach may not meet the minimum requirements for becoming a judge.
According to Virgin Islands law, in order to be appointed as a judge in Superior Court, “a person must be a member in good standing of the Virgin Islands Bar and shall have been engaged in the active practice of law for not less than five years immediately prior to this nomination, of which not less than three years shall have been in the Virgin Islands.”
Their concern stems from the fact that Hinds only passed the Virgin Islands bar exam in 2010. Working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Hinds did not need to do so in order to practice law because she had already passed the bar in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
VIBA wrote that they believed the five years of experience required by the law needed to have occurred after the nominee joined the bar, so even though Hinds had been practicing law in the Virgin Islands for 18 years, she would only receive credit for two and thus was not qualified.
Hinds argued that this interpretation of the law was flawed and that all of her experience should be counted. Ultimately the governor and senators sided with her interpretation and her nomination was confirmed.
During her speech, VIBA Treasurer Natalie Nelson Tang How made a conciliatory gesture to Roach.
“The Virgin Islands Bar Association embraces our own. And we are proud of our two members who are now judges of this territory. Congratulations to both of you,” she said.
After the new judges were sworn in, they were given an opportunity to address the crowd.
Brady spent most of his speech thanking his family, fellow attorneys and judges who have impacted his career, saying that they molded him into who he is today.
He said he was excited to join the judiciary at what he called “unquestionably the most dynamic period in the history of Virgin Islands jurisprudence.”
Brady heralded the expansion of the Superior Court’s jurisdiction over all local civil and criminal issues and the recent federal legislation allowing the Virgin Island Supreme Court to refer cases directly to the Supreme Court of the United States as major achievements for the territory.
He said the judicial system still had its problems, but he was eager to be part of the solution. Brady told the crowd he would work to reduce the backlog in the system and streamline the process for hearing both criminal and civil cases.
Calling herself “a little girl from Grove Place,” Roach spoke of her deep roots in the St. Croix community and her dedication to making it a better place to live.
She said that when she was approached by the governor about becoming a judge, she accepted solely on the condition that she be appointed to family court.
Roach said that throughout her career, she found that most of the people she prosecuted had personal issues stemming from traumatic or unstable childhoods. She said she believed a family court judge had the ability “to change the trajectory of children and their families.”
“There’s no nobler calling than rescuing children,” she said, adding that, in reality, when you do so, you’re rescuing your own future.
In his closing remarks, Judge Darryl Dean Donohue, presiding judge of the Superior Court, welcomed his new colleagues and said he believed they would live up to the task given to them.
