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Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, was born in New York City on January 1, 1942. She grew up in Washington Heights, graduated from Hunter College in 1963 and received her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law in 1967. She served as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society in New York City from 1967 to 1969 when she became an Assistant Counsel for the Judicial Conference of the State of New York; in 1972, Chief Law Assistant of the Criminal Court of the City of New York; and in 1974, Counsel in the Office of the New York City Administrative Judge. In 1978, she was appointed Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, and in 1982 was elected to the New York State Supreme Court. She was appointed to the Court of Appeals on December 1, 1993 by Governor Mario M. Cuomo, confirmed by the State Senate and sworn in on January 4, 1994, the first Hispanic to serve on the Court of Appeals. She is a former vice-president and secretary of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, and is presently a Trustee of Boricua College and a member of the Board of Directors of St. John's University School of Law Alumni Association. She served on the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for eight years and held an adjunct professor position in the legal studies department at New York City Technical College for two years. In 1991, she was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame, and in 1994 received its President's Medal. She and her husband, Joseph Damian Ciparick, a New York City high school chemistry teacher, have one daughter, Roseanne, an opera singer. |
Richard C. Wesley, Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, was born in Canandaigua, New York on August 1, 1949. He obtained his B.A. (summa cum laude) from the State University of New York at Albany, and his law degree from the Cornell Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review. After several years in private practice, Judge Wesley was appointed assistant counsel to Assembly Republican Leader James L. Emery, and in 1982 was himself elected to the Assembly. In 1986, Judge Wesley was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court in the Seventh Judicial District, and in January 1991 was appointed Supervising Judge of the Criminal Courts there. In 1993, he instituted a Felony Screening Program in Monroe County and worked with criminal justice agencies to develop the JUST Program (a comprehensive program monitoring pre-plea and pre-sentence defendants and providing program alternatives to jail without compromising public safety). On March 25, 1994, Governor Cuomo appointed Judge Wesley to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department. On December 3, 1996, Governor Pataki nominated him to the Court of Appeals, and he was confirmed by the Senate on January 14, 1997. Judge Wesley has been a member of the Board of Trustees of United Church of Livonia, Chances and Changes (a community-based organization that provides safe housing to battered women), the Charles Settlement House, the Center for Dispute Resolution, the Pre-Trial Services Corporation and Family Services of Rochester. He is active in a number of local youth sports programs, and serves as a driver for the Livonia Volunteer Ambulance. Judge Wesley and his wife, Kathryn (the former Kathryn Rice of Auburn, New York), live in Livonia with their two children. |
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 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York | |
