Judge Marlene Budd hired by Suffolk as $147G unit chief

Suffolk Family Court Judge Marlene Budd, who lost a bid for re-election in November, will join the county attorney’s office in January as $146,708-a-year bureau chief of the real estate unit.

She will join former elected officials ex-Assemblyman Edward Hennessey and former Brookhaven Town board member Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, now on the Suffolk County Attorney’s staff.

Budd, a Setauket resident, lost re-election after a Suffolk County Bar Association judicial screening committee initially balked at giving her a qualified rating. After an appeal to the bar’s board of directors, she was found qualified.

Budd, who served one term as a Huntington Town board member, is in the midst of divorcing her husband Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington).