Pinto Defies Blue Wave in Staten Island Judicial Race
A Republican judge won the 13th Judicial District seat while Democrats swept all other New York City boroughs in Tuesday's Supreme Court elections.
By Renata Mehta ·
Staten Island delivered the only Republican victory in New York City's Supreme Court elections on Tuesday, bucking a trend of Democratic wins across the five boroughs. Judge Michael Pinto secured 60% of the vote in the 13th Judicial District race, according to results with 98% of ballots counted. His opponent, Kevin Richards, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, lost the contest for the borough's bench.
The 2026 judicial elections saw Democratic-nominated candidates prevail in the other four districts by wide margins. In Queens, Edwin Novillo, Oma Philips, and Gail Philips won the three seats in the 11th Judicial District. Each defeated their Republican opponents, Gary Muraca and David Bellon, by at least 14 percentage points. Novillo, who became the first Ecuadorian judge in New York state, had served as a supervising Civil Court judge since 2024.
Manhattan's 2nd Judicial District added six new justices to the Supreme Court bench, all running under the Democratic Party line. The group includes Appellate Division Justices Saliann Scarpulla, Manuel Mendez, and Shlomo Hagler, who won reelection to their appellate posts. Three acting Supreme Court justices, Kathleen Waterman Marshall, Hasa Kingo, and Christopher Chin, converted their temporary roles into elected positions. Hagler, appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2025, had served as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Term from 2021 to 2025.
Brooklyn's Supreme Court bench in the 2nd Judicial District saw four sitting Civil Court judges elected to higher positions. Betsey Jean-Jacques, Lola Waterman, Hemalee Patel, and Sherveal Mimes each won by more than 20 points against Conservative candidate William D. Spain Jr. Jean-Jacques, who joined the Civil Court in 2024, serves as president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kings County. Patel, a Brooklyn Law School graduate, previously worked as a court attorney-referee on Staten Island.
The Bronx elected Alvin Yearwood to the Supreme Court bench as the sole candidate on the ballot. Yearwood has served on the New York City Criminal Court bench since 2003 and was designated an acting Supreme Court justice in January 2010. He has also held the role of Administrative Judge for the Bronx Supreme Court's criminal term. His unopposed victory completes the new class of 15 justices taking the bench this year.
The election results reflect a split in the city's judicial landscape, with Staten Island standing apart from the surrounding boroughs. Pinto, who was elected to the Staten Island Civil Court in 2023, grew up in the borough and graduated from St. John's University Law School in 2013. Before joining the bench, he worked as a principal court attorney for Judge Robert Helbock and practiced insurance coverage defense at Mendes & Mount.
The new justices bring varied legal backgrounds to their new roles. In Manhattan, Waterman-Marshall has presided over complex divorce and custody cases since her 2021 appointment to the Supreme Court. Kingo, who joined the Civil Court in 2021, previously served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Chin, appointed in 2022, brings a trial background in personal injury law and served as an acting criminal court judge in the Bronx.
Queens candidates Novillo, Philips, and Adams filled the remaining seats in that district. Novillo spent over 14 years as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society before his 2018 appointment by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Gail Philips served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx for 11 years before moving to Queens Civil Court. The election cycle concluded with Democrats holding 14 of the 15 contested seats, leaving the new bench predominantly aligned with the party's judicial slate.
