• NEWS RELEASE: MARCH 25, 2009

    Jefferson County Court Judge Kim Martusewicz has announced that he is a candidate for re-election for a second 10-year term. Judge Martusewicz made his announcement at a meeting of the Jefferson County Democratic Committee on March 25, 2009 where he received the unanimous endorsement from that group. He was first elected County Court Judge in 1999 with the endorsement of the Democrat, Independence and Conservative parties.

    In making his announcement Judge Martusewicz noted that the Jefferson County Court deals primarily with felony criminal matters and that the caseload in his court has more than doubled since he took office on January 1, 2000. He noted that he has had the heaviest caseload of any felony judge in Upstate New York for several years.

    The judge reported that he instituted a felony screening process during his first weeks in office - a management practice that has actually resulted in stabilizing and even lowering the number of indictments in Jefferson County at the very same time as arrests and prosecutions have increased dramatically. He said that by reducing the number of indictments, hundreds of man-hours (by prosecutors, police, witnesses, public counsel and jurors) have been reduced, resulting in substantial savings to county taxpayers.

    In 2001 Judge Martusewicz created the Jefferson County Drug Court for non-violent drug addicts and alcoholics in cooperation with the District Attorney's Office, Public Defender, CREDO, Samaritan Behavioral Health Services, the Bridge Program and the County Probation Department. He said he was successful in securing a federal training grant which allowed Jefferson County to create the program before it was mandated by the state, again at a substantial savings to county taxpayers.

    Judge Martusewicz said that he was looking forward to the campaign and re-affirmed his strong support for the continued election of the trial judges in NY State. He noted that some organizations are trying to prevent the citizen-voters from electing their judges and are pushing to have elite commissions or committees appoint all judges. Judge Martusewicz said that "judges should be elected, not anointed". He said that the appointment of judges would not remove the politics from the selection of judges but would only result in "secret, closed door political manipulation". He said that his campaign had established a website at www.JudgeKim.Org so that the voters could learn about his record and his qualifications.