{"id":282601,"date":"2026-06-30T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282601\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:47:09","slug":"new-judge-appointed-to-manhattan-bronx-appellate-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282601\/","title":{"rendered":"New judge appointed to Manhattan, Bronx appellate court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> appointed Justice Matthew Parker-Raso as an additional justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department .<\/p>\n

The move came as the governor elevated Justice Manuel Mendez to an associate justice from an additional justice of the First Department appellate court.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers deserve a judiciary that reflects excellence, fairness, and the diversity of our state,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cJustice Matthew Parker-Raso\u2019s historic appointment to the First Department and Justice Manuel Mendez\u2019s elevation strengthen New York\u2019s appellate court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker-Raso was elected as the first openly gay male judge in the Bronx Supreme Court. Before he took that post, he served as a NYC Civil Court Judge and worked as a supervising judge of Bronx Civil Court two years.<\/p>\n

Parker-Raso worked in the court system and served on various civic organizations before he became a judge. He served as a senior court attorney and the principal law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Mitchell Danziger. He\u2019s been a member of Bronx Community Board 11, the Bronx Borough President\u2019s LGBTQ+ Policy Task Force, and the Judiciary Committee of the LGBT Bar Association of New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Parker-Raso brings to this Court the intellect and collegiality he demonstrated as a Justice of the Supreme Court. He has earned a reputation as a hard-working jurist possessed of sound judgment, integrity, respect for the rule of law, and a passion for justice,\u201d said First Department Presiding Justice Dianne Renwick.<\/p>\n

The First Department has seven associate justices, also referred to as the constitutional justices as a result of the minimum number of justices the state constitution requires on the court. All the other judges on the appellate court are technically additional justices, who are assigned to help the court with its increasing workload. Mendez was first appointed to the court as an additional justice. His new status won\u2019t affect his responsibilities but represents a step up in seniority.<\/p>\n

Mendez was first appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department by Governor Andrew Cuomo as an Associate Justice in 2020. He previously served in New York County Supreme Court as coordinating judge of the New York City Asbestos Litigation. As a trial judge he presided over hundreds of civil trials, including the longest trial in the history of the City and possibly the state of New York.<\/p>\n

Mendez began his legal career at the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Division, Bronx County, in 1990, and was elected to the Civil Court of New York County in 2003, before serving on the civil court in Brooklyn and the Bronx as well. In 2010, he was appointed an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court, and in 2012, he was elected to the Manhattan Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am delighted that Governor Hochul has designated Justice Mendez as a Constitutional Justice of our Court,\u201d Renwick said. \u201cHe is an exceptional jurist whose hard-working, deliberate, and collegial approach to his responsibilities as an appellate judge make him an asset to the bench and a valued colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Justice Matthew Parker-Raso as an additional justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-282601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}