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Lisa Miralles Walsh named Union County's new chief judge

ELIZABETH – Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh, nominated to the bench in 2017, will become Union County's new assignment judge on Sept. 1.

Walsh, named to the county's top judicial post by New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, will succeed Judge Karen M. Cassidy, who is retiring after 21 years on the bench and more than 12 years as assignment judge.

Walsh, who presides over criminal cases, worked as an assistant prosecutor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office from 1999 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2017, where she served as a trial team leader and a member of the sex crimes and child abuse unit.

In between, she worked as a solo practitioner, specializing in criminal defense and real estate tax appeals.

Raised and educated in Elizabeth, Walsh received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University – New Brunswick.

While attending Seton Hall University School of Law, she interned at the Office of the Public Defender in Elizabeth and at the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.

After earning her law degree, she clerked in the Criminal and Chancery divisions for Union County Superior Court Judges Miriam N. Span and Edwin R. Alley.

More:  What we learned from Union County 2020 Census results

“I am thankful to Chief Justice Rabner for his trust in my abilities and honored to be chosen to lead the Union Vicinage. I am humbled to follow the trail blazed by Assignment Judge Karen Cassidy and to continue her tireless work to ensure fairness and justice to all litigants and attorneys who appear in our courts,” Walsh said in a statement. “I look forward to working collaboratively with the exceptional judges and staff of the Union County Courthouse as well as all members of the Bar as we carry on with the work of the Judiciary in these unprecedented times.”

Rabner praised Walsh for her judicial record.

“Judge Walsh is a gifted and talented jurist with a range of experience in different areas of the justice system," Rabner said in a statement. "She is poised to continue the fine tradition of court leadership in the Union Vicinage.”

The chief justice also praised Cassidy on her accomplishments.

“During her two decades on the bench, more than half of them as the assignment judge of the Union Vicinage, Judge Cassidy made a significant impact on the judiciary through her skilled leadership and insightful voice on important matters,” Rabner said.

Email: [email protected]

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh to Lead Union Vicinage

Walsh, 47, who is of Hispanic heritage, will succeed Judge Karen M. Cassidy, who is retiring on Sept. 1 after 21 years on the bench and more than 12 years as assignment judge, according to a release Monday from the judiciary.

August 18, 2021 at 12:11 PM

6 minute read

Suzette Parmley

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New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced that Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh will lead the Union Vicinage, effective Sept. 1.

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Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh will be Union Superior Court Vicinage assignment judge

A female Republican from Westfield will lead the Union Superior Court Vicinage as the assignment judge once the current assignment judge retires in September, a few days before she turns 61 years old.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh will become the second woman to lead the Union Vicinage, succeeding Judge Karen M. Cassidy, another Republican who is retiring after 21 years on the bench and more than 12 years as assignment judge, effective Sept. 1.

“During her two decades on the bench, more than half of them as the assignment judge of the Union Vicinage, Judge Cassidy made a significant impact on the judiciary through her skilled leadership and insightful voice on important matters,” said Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who elevated the 47-year-old jurist. “Judge Walsh is a gifted and talented jurist with a range of experience in different areas of the justice system. She is poised to continue the fine tradition of court leadership in the Union Vicinage.”

Cassidy, who presided over the contentious divorce trial of former Gov. James E. McGreevey and Dina Matos, ascended to the top judicial post in the county when Judge Walter Barisonek retired in 2009.

Cassidy was a partner at the Roseland law firm of Connell, Foley before being appointed to the bench in April 2000 by then-Gov. Christie Whitman. She served in Union County the entire time, in both the family division and in the civil division.

Cassidy, a lifelong Cranford resident, began her career as a law clerk for former Union County Assignment Judge Edward W. Beglin, Jr. Her husband, Mark J. Cassidy, is a municipal judge in their home town.

Judge Walsh serves in the criminal division in the Union Vicinage.

She previously worked as an assistant prosecutor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office from 1999 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2017, where she served as a trial team leader and a member of the sex crimes and child abuse unit.

In between, she was a solo practitioner, specializing in criminal defense and real estate tax appeals.

She was appointed to the bench in January 2017 by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

“I am thankful to Chief Justice Rabner for his trust in my abilities and honored to be chosen to lead the Union Vicinage. I am humbled to follow the trail blazed by Assignment Judge Karen Cassidy and to continue her tireless work to ensure fairness and justice to all litigants and attorneys who appear in our courts,” said Walsh in a statemen t. “ I look forward to working collaboratively with the exceptional judges and staff of the Union County Courthouse as well as all members of the Bar as we carry on with the work of the Judiciary in these unprecedented times.”

Walsh was raised and educated in Elizabeth and graduated from Rutgers University – New Brunswick.

While attending Seton Hall University School of Law, she interned at the Office of the Public Defender in Elizabeth and at the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.

After earning her law degree, she clerked in the Criminal and Chancery divisions for Superior Court Judges Miriam N. Span and Edwin R. Alley in the Union Vicinage.

In a profile on the Seton Hall website , Walsh was quoted sayin that “the biggest thing I try to focus on is to have compassion and treat people with kindness and fairness. It’s important to have civility between parties, between the bench and bar, and to remember that everyone has struggles. While I expect to be professional, I will strive to be understanding when the circumstances warrant.”

Looking back on her career path at that time, Walsh advised students to meet as many people as you can.

Her husband, Kevin G. Walsh , is co-chair of the Gibbons PC Government Affairs Department, a business litigator, and a criminal defense attorney.. He was the 2020-2021 president of the Essex County Bar Association.

As a lobbyist, he represented electric utilities, heavy contractors, telecommunications companies, solar companies, and other highly regulated businesses before the Board of Public Utilities, the Department of Environmental Protection, and other state agencies.

Mr. Walsh’s practice of law includes business litigation, government affairs, and criminal defense. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Walsh was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey, Criminal Division.

Mr. Walsh represented Seton Hall University, Stevens Institute of Technology and Caldwell University, overseeing complex Title IX investigations, FERPA and distance learning compliance matters, defense of employee discrimination claims, and board governance issues.

He helped Seton Hall University navigate allegations of clergy sex abuse involving adult victims and advised clients from food preparation companies to construction companies about how to modify workplace practices in light of COVID-19 and the corresponding stream of executive orders issued by northeast governors.

The couple live in a 3,909 square foot Westfield home a single family home built in 1960, which they purchased in 2015 for $775,000, and which is currently assessed at $1,036,200 although it has an estimated value of $1,122,700.

This story was edited on August 23, 2021, to remove a link to the website of the New Jersey County Tax Boards Association , where the $775,000 sale price and current assessment of $1,036,200 for the judge’s home was found. We also removed our source indicating the home has an estimated value of $1,122,700, which included a link to the website for the National Association of Realtors , which is operated by Move, Inc., a subsidiary of News Corp.

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Women of achievement and leadership – Hon. Judge Karen Cassidy, Assignment Judge

• Post author By Web Site Administrator
• Post date March 28, 2018

The Union County Board of Freeholders is proud to announce that the Union County Office on Women has created a new series of videos highlighting women of achievement and leadership here in Union County, NJ. The new video series will be called Union County Women Making History. This first video is a profile of the Hon. Judge Karen Cassidy, Assignment Judge here in Union County. More videos will be released throughout the year.

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Top Judge Of Union County On Career, Retirement

By Nick Muscavage · August 23, 2021, 3:26 PM EDT

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Cassidy is first woman to become Union County's top judge

• Published: Feb. 01, 2009, 2:26 p.m.
• Julie O'Connor | Star-Ledger Editorial Board

More than a few people noticed the cool-headed efficiency of Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy as she presided over the contentious divorce trial last year of former Gov. James E. McGreevey and Dina Matos.

In the midst of a media frenzy, she used a steady hand to control the emotionally-charged courtroom battle in Union County between the combative McGreeveys.

Not coincidentally, starting Monday, she will be the first woman to ascend to the top judicial post in the county. The retiring assignment judge, Walter Barisonek, called her a natural choice for his replacement.

"That's why I gave her that case," Barisonek said recently of the McGreevey trial. "She has appropriate judicial temperament, but at the same time, she can keep control over her courtroom. That's what you want in a judge: temperament, brains."

Barisonek, 65, said he's looking forward to traveling and spending time with his grandchildren. He said Cassidy, who formerly presided over the family division, has clearly demonstrated her capacity for efficient management.

"Dealing with all the press issues and the high-profile issues of the McGreeveys, constant applications, constant interruptions -- that's all part of the assignment judge's job," he said. "She showed she can do that."

While Cassidy has yet to begin hauling boxes of her files and family photos down to Barisonek's first-floor courtroom, she's already being guided by her predecessor on the tasks of an assignment judge, like picking a grand jury. In the meantime, Cassidy has been training her own replacement, Superior Court Judge Katherine Dupuis from the civil division.

Cassidy, 49, said there's added satisfaction that the new face of the Union County justice system is finally female. She hopes this will encourage other aspiring women judges. When her mother, a homemaker, was growing up during the Great Depression, a woman judge was a foreign concept, Cassidy said. No longer.

"I'm one of those people who really feels it's an important thing to demonstrate that women can do that," she said of her new position. "It really speaks to how far we've come."

Cassidy was appointed to the bench in April 2000 by then-Gov. Christie Whitman. She has served in Union County ever since, first in the family division, then in the civil division from 2002 to 2005.

She returned to the family division in 2005 to serve as presiding judge. There, she was struck by the sheer number of domestic violence cases. "Domestic violence, day in and day out," Cassidy described. "I had no idea of the enormity of the issues that come with that. ... It was a real education for me."

To her, the highly-public McGreevey case simply represents the difficult situations family court judges confront every day. She said she regularly decided issues "you would hope people would have to decide for themselves."

In her new post, Cassidy anticipates caseload management to be one of her biggest challenges. With Barisonek and Superior Court Judge John Triarsi leaving, the county will be down five judges. Still more retirements are expected this year.

"Everybody is working to capacity, and more so," Cassidy said. "That's the kind of thing I'm trying to get my arms around now."

Cassidy, a former trial attorney, began her career as a law clerk for former Union County Assignment Judge Edward W. Beglin, Jr. So did her husband, Mark Cassidy, who is now a municipal judge in their home town of Cranford.

Beglin said he "couldn't be more pleased" with her new appointment, calling Cassidy a well-grounded jurist. "Union County's had a good number of women judges over the years," he said, "but I think it's time now that a woman takes the top spot."

Cassidy, who was raised in Cranford by her mother and now-deceased father Charles, a machinist, still lives in town with her husband, 10-year-old daughter Sarah and 16-year-old son Patrick.

She's a Mets fan in a household that roots for the Yankees, and is active in her church and her daughter's Girl Scout troop.

While two judges in one household may mean some comparing of notes, Cassidy admits, they prefer to leave it behind at dinnertime.

"We're mom and dad," she said with a smile. "Whatever we do at work, we do at work."

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YouTuber loses motion in Union City case, but wins legal fees & complaint reviews

YouTuber Leroy Truth lost a motion for temporary restraints last week in his wrongful arrest case against Union City, though the judge’s ruling also awarded him legal fees to be determined, as well as a review of the pending criminal complaints filed against him.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

” … It is further ordered that any criminal complaints filed against the Plaintiff shall be reviewed by the Presiding Judge of the Municipal Courts of Hudson County to determine if there is probable cause for the issuance of such a complaint,” Hudson County Superior Court Assignment Judge Jeffrey Jablonski ruled on Friday .

“It is further ordered that the Plaintiff’s legal fees and costs shall be reimbursed by the Defendants with a separate order to follow setting forth the amount.”

This came in addition to the application for a preliminary injunction being denied, as well as setting several deadlines for the case.

For example, all written discovery is due by November 1st, all depositions must be completed by December 10th, and a plenary hearing “to resolve the open factual and legal issues” being set for January 21st, 2025 at 9 a.m.

After being arrested at a board of commissioners meeting last month, Truth, whose real name is Leonard Filipowski, wasted little time in filing a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations and wrongful arrest.

His attorney in the matter, Mario Blanch, declined to comment beyond the judge’s ruling.

Filipowski, who describes himself as a First Amendment auditor, has been a persistent thorn in the side to state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack since December and the situation has only escalated since his arrest.

Stack, who has blamed North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, a longtime political adversary of his, for Filipowski’s sudden interest in Union City (both have denied this repeatedly) said in a mailer last month said the “ intensified harassment ” has included death threats.

The brief filed on Stack’s behalf by attorneys Jeffrey Chiesa, a former New Jersey attorney general and interim U.S. senator,  and Mauro Tucci, Jr. and opposing Filipowski’s echoed this sentiment.

“Plaintiff’s misconduct is more than disrespectful, it is dangerous. To date, Plaintiff has engaged in a malicious campaign of online harassment directed at Mayor Stack and other Union City representatives, which has escalated to ongoing death threats,” the attorneys wrote on August 5th.

“Plaintiff is an agent provocateur masquerading as a journalist who, with no prior connection to Union City, in December 2023, suddenly swooped in from New York with the political goal of maligning Mayor Stack and anyone affiliated with him. Plaintiff is openly affiliated with North Bergen’s mayor and police force. In fact, those same players invited him to speak on ‘First Amendment’ issues at a July gathering of local officials that promptly drew a rebuke from the Hudson County Counsel as a politicized event.”

The incident in question was when Filipowski was a speaker at a Hudson County Municipal Clerks Association meeting in North Bergen last month, as HCV first reported .

Sacco has backed Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop for governor, while Stack has thrown his support behind U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5), who has not declared yet, in part  reigniting the bad blood between the North Hudson power brokers as a full fledged civil war continues to escalate.

Fulop, who has also denied having any involvement with Filipowski, has committed to challenging Stack’s preferred candidates in the 33rd Legislative District Assembly races next year.

For the moment, that matchup appears to be a tag team affair that pits Sacco antagonist Larry Wainstein and Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez, Team Stack, against Assemblyman Julio Marenco and progressive activist Hector Oseguera , Team Fulop.

The Democratic primary is set for June 3rd, 2025.

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Murphy to nominate eight new judges, including Barbara Kalik’s son

Latest round wil bring the total number of pending nominations from 18 to 26

By David Wildstein , November 09 2023 10:37 am

Gov. Phil Murphy intends to nominate eight new Superior Court Judges when the Senate returns this month, including the filling of three open seats in Somerset County, where judicial shortages have shut down civil and matrimonial trials.

One of his picks is Lance Kalik, the co-managing partner at one of the state’s oldest law firms and the son of former Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Kalik (D-Willingboro).

Kalik has been co-managing partner at Riker Danzig since 2017 and has run their insurance and reinsurance practice since 2014.

Also tapped for Somerset County seats:  Frank Morano, a former deputy attorney general, and assistant Hudson County Prosecutor; and John Bruder, the Bound Brook municipal prosecutor.

For a seat in Ocean County, Murphy is nominating Anthony Merlino, the assistant Toms River township attorney and a former law clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poritz.   Rebecca Bertram, a lawyer from Bridgeton, was picked to fill an open seat in Cumberland County.

Three of the potential judges are from Union County, including Anthony Parenti, a sixteen-year assistant Union County Prosecutor who spent 26 years as a Summit police sergeant before becoming an attorney.    His late father was the longtime Fanwood police chief and later, a Republican councilman.

Murphy is also nominating Raquel Vallejo, a family lawyer and trustee of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey, and Kelly Waters, the managing partner of a New York law firm’s New Jersey office.   She specializes in product liability cases.

Barbara Kalik, now known as Barbara Bennett, had become the first woman to serve as mayor of Willingboro and won a State Assembly seat in 1977 after Charles Yates gave up his 7th district seat to successfully challenge an incumbent in the Democratic Senate primary.    She served seven terms as an assemblywoman before becoming a casualty of the 1991 anti-Jim Florio Republican wave election.

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Federal judge’s ruling in Andy Kim’s lawsuit may doom the NJ county line

3-minute read.

New Jersey’s county line — the preferential positioning given to candidates by county organizations — may meet its demise.

Rep. Andy Kim’s federal lawsuit calling for an end to the county line moved forward Friday.

In a preliminary injunction on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi said that ballots used for the June 4 primary will have to use a ballot design that groups candidates by office sought but not with candidates for a different office, with large separations from other candidates running for the same office, with bracketing or with “candidates underneath another candidate running for the same office, where the rest of the candidates are listed horizontally, or to the side of another candidate running for the same office, where the rest of the candidates are listed vertically.”

This use of the commonly called “office-block” style ballot must be used for vote-by-mail ballots as well as at polling locations.

Quraishi said Kim’s attorneys have shown a “severe burden on their First Amendment rights” and that he has “already found a likelihood of success on the merits for plaintiffs as well as a showing of irreparable harm, including the likelihood of constitutional violations.”

“The court wishes to make clear that it recognizes the magnitude of its decision,” Quraishi said in his preliminary opinion. “The integrity of the democratic process for a primary election is at stake and the remedy plaintiffs are seeking is extraordinary. Mandatory injunctive relief is reserved only for the most unusual cases. Plaintiffs’ burden on this motion is therefore particularly heavy. Nevertheless, the court finds, based on this record, that plaintiffs have met their burden and that this is the rare instance when mandatory relief is warranted.”

Kim called the decision a "victory for a fairer, more democratic politics in New Jersey."

"It's a victory built from the incredible grassroots work of activists across our state who saw an undemocratic system marginalizing the voices of voters, and worked tirelessly to fix it,” Kim said in a statement. “While fixing this unfair ballot system is a massive step forward toward perfecting our democracy, there is still work to be done. Both in New Jersey and nationwide, we need to regain the trust of the voters we serve."

Kim had filed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the controversial county line ballot design last month while in midst of a primary battle with first lady Tammy Murphy for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. She has since dropped out of the race. The seat is currently held by Sen. Bob Menendez.

The governor's office had no comment on the order on Friday but earlier in the week, Gov. Phil Murphy said that while he is "open-minded to tweaking the system if there's an opportunity to make it better," he thinks the line has "worked pretty well."

"If progressives were out there trying to look at whether or not they got a good government over the past 6.5 years. I'd like them to find a more progressive government in America than what they got the past 6.5 years, with yours truly elected twice on the line in both cases," Murphy said.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a letter earlier this month saying he didn't intend to defend the line in court because he viewed it as "unconstitutional."

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: [email protected]