The members of the Peekskill Common Council have found their candidate to be the next full-time judge of the Peekskill City Court.
The Herald has learned that Lisa Daley, currently serving as a Court Attorney-Referee in the Bronx Family Court, has been selected to serve as the replacement for former Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald Johnson.
Daley, if she accepts the position, could be formally appointed to the post at the Common Council’s Nov. 25 meeting, according to a person familiar with the process.
Daley was elected president of the Westchester Black Bar Association earlier this year. She began serving her current role as Court Attorney-Referee in the Bronx in August of 2022.
Prior to that Daley was a managing attorney at My Sisters’ Place in White Plains for 19 months. She was a staff attorney with DC37 Municipal Employees union Legal Services office for 15 years beginning in July of 2002.
Daley earned her Doctor of Law JD from Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in 1997 after gaining her undergraduate degree from Manhattan University in 1993. She earned a two-year degree from CUNY Bronx Community College in 1991.
The future Peekskill City Court judge brings a varied background to her new role. While practicing as an attorney, she went back to school and earned a registered nurse associate’s degree from Montefiore School of Nursing and became a registered nurse in 2014. She went on to obtain a BS in Nursing from Chamberlain University in 2017 and worked as a registered nurse and patient safety risk manager at NYU Langone Health from February 2018 to January 2021 during the height of the covid pandemic.
Lisa Daley is also a world-class track athlete, having set the American 400m hurdles record for women age 40 to 44. She won 14 individual medals representing the United States in international track competition and is a member of four track and field Halls of Fame including the USA Track and Field Masters Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Replacing a judge forced to resign
Daley would succeed former City Court Judge Johnson approximately two months after his stunning departure from the court after serving there since January 2014.
This July, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct brought charges of ticket-fixing and verbal abuse against Johnson that ultimately led to his resignation, announced on Sept. 20, along with a stipulation that Johnson will never serve as a judge again. Also included in the stipulation was Johnson’s waiving of confidentiality and acknowledgement that the allegations would be made public.
The Commission determined that Judge Johnson “… failed to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary by failing to maintain high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary would be preserved.”
The Commission’s overwhelming case against Johnson was comprised of testimony and documents showing a long-standing practice by Judge Johnson of dismissing moving violation of traffic laws for friends and politically influential people and a years-long pattern of verbal abuse of court personnel in Peekskill.
One of the allegations in the findings was that Judge Johnson voided a ticket issued to a friend of Councilman Ramon Fernandez after Fernandez spoke to the judge about the matter. Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie announced shortly thereafter that a majority of Council members decided that Fernandez should resign.
However, Fernandez refused to step down and now awaits a review of the matter by the city’s Board of Ethics, headed by Chairman Joe Brady. The city is still waiting for the state Commission to provide transcripts of the testimony of Johnson and Fernandez so the board can make a recommendation to the Common Council, a process proscribed for handling alleged ethics violations in the city charter.
For Lisa Daley, becoming the City Court Judge for the City of Peekskill would fulfill the next goal in her professional career.
In an August 2024 interview published in Westchester Lawyer, Daley explained that being an athlete taught her the importance of goal setting, discipline and resilience, “… which have been invaluable in my legal career.”
Asked about her future ambitions, Daley replied “I aspire to become a judge.”
