Windham Loses and Gains a Judge

WINDHAM - It wasn’t the night before Christmas, but barely a creature was stirring when Windham government officials gathered, last Thursday, for their second of two regularly scheduled December meetings.

Sessions are held at the municipal building in the hamlet of Hensonville, where the house was so quiet, a mouse could have been heard.

Only three of the customary five town councilmen were present, just enough to have a legal quorum and conduct business.

They breezed through a brief agenda, joined by the town clerk and no one else on a bone-chilling evening that would have seemed normal if it was happening in the middle of January.

Ignoring the outdoor heat-stealing winds and face-pelting snow, board members accepted the resignation of Judge Carol Stevens.

The departure is effective December 31 of this year, concluding an exemplary near-decade of service for the former county attorney.

Stevens, in a resignation letter to the board, wrote, “in accordance with State regulations, I request that the town supervisor have an audit performed of my financial records as a town justice.”

That will be done, town supervisor Thomas Hoyt said, noting a Letter of Appreciation will be sent to Stevens, a onetime candidate for New York State Supreme Court. 

Stevens graduated from the State University College at Potsdam, magna cum laude, and earned her law degree at Albany Law School in 1979.

She is a graduate of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy associated with Notre Dame University, and is admitted to all State and federal district courts. 

Stevens served as the volunteer chairwoman of the Bataviakill Watershed District which owns and operates three high hazard dams in Greene County.

She was chairwoman during Hurricane Irene, in the summer of 2011, and helped see the district and county through the restoration process.

Wasting no time, and turning to local talent, council members appointed local attorney Marilyn Carreras to replace Stevens on an interim basis.

Carreras will need to run for a 4-year term at the next general election, in November, 2025, if she wishes to continue on the bench.

“Marilyn is beyond qualified,” Hoyt said. “It is our good fortune to have her in our town and that she is willing to serve as a judge.”

Carreras studied law at the Fordham University School of Law at Lincoln Center, New York City, the day division, coming to Windham with a solid resume.

She had many years of civil law practice in lower Manhattan, representing large not-for-profit corporations, actors and musicians and private clients.

Carreras was responsible for motions, court hearings and trials, saying, “the most rewarding of which were representing children and private child care facilities.”

She interned in Federal criminal law at the Office of the US Attorney for the southern district of New York in white collar crime and major frauds,
reaching internationally.
The internship included working in State Criminal Law at the Westchester District Attorney's Office, in the fraud office at White Plains, and for preliminary criminal prosecutions in other county offices.

Setting up her own practice in Windham, Carreras, over the past 37 years, covered diverse areas of law, entailing 2 to 3 days a week in Greene County and other county courts.

Carreras has worked with the New York State Bar Association in the Big Apple and Albany, moderating the Continuing Legal Education Program.

A deep passion has been representing small law practices in assisting the rewrite of the Lawyers Rules of Professional Ethics. Carreras has been published in a special edition of the NYS Bar Association magazine.

In another matter related to the legal system and law enforcement, council members previously reported the hiring of Steven Bence as a parttime officer with the Windham police department.

Bence in his mid-30’s, has work experience in the State prison system and, at the time of his hiring, was working in security with the Greene County sheriff’s department.

He has worked in the field with current Windham police chief Richard Selner. “We’re pleased to get Officer Bence,” Hoyt said.

“Many departments in the State are dealing with the same struggle, finding officers. Years ago there was a waiting list for the police academy. Now there are only a handful of people interested.”

The hiring of Bence, “shows our commitment to the police department,” Hoyt said, noting police union membership approved “1000 percent.”