Stearns to run for Supreme Court Justice
Melissa Stearns of Oneida seeks the Supreme Court vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Kevin Dowd in 2017. Stearns is the principal law clerk (attorney) to the Hon. Donald F. Cerio, Jr., Acting Supreme Court Justice for the Sixth Judicial District, a position she has held for the last 10 years.
Prior to her service in Supreme Court, Stearns was a prosecutor in the Madison County District Attorney’s Office from 1996 through 2008, served as the STOP DWI assistant district attorney in 1996, then first assistant district attorney in 2002 and ending her career there as acting district attorney in May 2008.
“My career as an attorney has been devoted to public service,” Stearns said. “Whether in the District Attorney’s Office or as Judge Cerio’s law clerk, I have strived to bring fairness and justice to all matters before me, never forgetting these are people’s lives, not just cases. I would be honored to continue that service to the people of the Sixth Judicial District as their next Supreme Court Justice.”
The Sixth Judicial District is comprised of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins counties.
Stearns resides in Oneida with her husband and three teenaged children.