WURTSBORO, NY — Cynthia Dolan is serving her second term as judge in the Town of Mamakating. She is running for the seat of Sullivan County Supreme Court Judge, which is being vacated because Judge Frank LaBuda has reached the state-mandated retirement age of 70.

Along with serving as a judge she is also an attorney, and according to her website, “has practiced at every level of our judiciary having defended litigants in civil rights cases in Federal Court, the Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.” She has also defended cases in the New York State Court of Appeals and all four appellate courts in the state.

Dolan, a Democrat, is running against district attorney Jim Farrell, a Republican. “When I looked at running, number one I wanted to give people a choice for a judge. I don’t think it’s appropriate to have an uncontested race, and I don’t think anyone else was stepping up—it’s a challenging race,” she said during an interview at The River Reporter.

She noted that, running as a sitting judge, she is limited in what she can discuss. “I’m a professional, not a politician. So I’m not someone who is out there discussing cases or sensationalizing cases. I’m ethically also prohibited from commenting on pending cases. The rules for sitting judges, especially when running for office, are very restrictive.”

The legislature voted to make significant changes to the cash bail system in the state earlier this year, which take effect January 1. Many offences, which now result in suspects be required to post bail, will then result it suspects being released on their own recognizance.

“Right now, as a town justice, I makes bail decisions every day,” she said. “What I think the legislature intended to address is to insure that lower-lever offenders, nonviolent offenders, those individuals who routinely cannot afford to make bail, don’t sit in jail—that we don’t have a situation like the Rikers Island situation,” (a reference to Kalief Browder who committed suicide after being held for three years in the New York City prison because he could not make bail.)

“Now, is that the best legislation that we’ve ever seen? Good judges are going to find a way to work within that legislation, qualifying offences non-qualifying offences… There are some non-qualifying offences that are felonies, and that raises concern for individuals in our communities, judges and prosecutors. But judges don’t pass legislation, we play the hand that’s dealt us. The judges will put their heads down, figure it out, find a way to balance public safety with individual liberties and follow the law.”

There are also changes coming regarding discovery in criminal cases, eliminating the need for defense attorneys to prepare written requests to obtain copies of evidence collected by prosecutors. Under the reform, prosecutors must allow the defendant to “discover, inspect, copy, photograph and test,” all materials connected to the case, and there is also a “presumption of openness,” written into the legislation.

“Looking at those discovery reforms, I think defendants will be much more informed… they’ll be much more informed because they’re going to have more access to information earlier on. How is all this going to play out? We really don’t know. Maybe they’ll assign magistrate judges to handle discovery in criminal cases if it becomes a voluminous process. We’re going to have to figure it out.”

She said of the coming changes, “Bad people who do bad things, they go away, we know that. You have no remorse, you pay your debt to society. But there are also good people who make mistakes, and there are also good people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. So what do you do to get them right back on track, to make them productive citizens? Well you look at that. You don’t just throw the book at everybody. And that’s the way that I work with people in my court. And if you take the time to do that, then you’re much more effective.”

There are now two judges in the Town of Mamkating, but for a while, Dolan was handling the court on her own, which greatly increased the middle-of-the-night phone calls she got regarding arraignment of people had been arrested late at night. “For a while,” she said,“you could go two or three nights without sleep. What they say is if you don’t want to get up in the middle of the night, don’t take the job."