DA Singas among 7 nominated to fill Court of Appeals vacancy

ALBANY – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas is among seven candidates nominated Thursday to fill an upcoming vacancy on New York’s highest court.

The Commission on Judicial Nomination said it reviewed a pool of 45 applicants to replace Judge Leslie Stein, who is retiring in June, on the state Court of Appeals.

The commission, created to fill such vacancies, advanced a list of seven candidates, all women, to be considered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is then to nominate one of them by May 8. His selection would have to be confirmed by the State Senate.

Singas, 54, has been Nassau DA since 2015, taking over in an acting capacity when Kathleen Rice was elected to Congress. Singas was reelected later that fall and again in 2019. The Manhasset resident graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University and Fordham University Law School.

She is one of three non-judges of the seven candidates nominated.

Others were Caitlin Halligan, a private attorney who once served as New York’s solicitor general – the second highest post in the attorney general’s office – and Kathy Hirata Chin, also a private attorney.

The other nominees are Judge Erin Peradotto of the mid-level Appellate Division in Western New York, Judge Shirley Troutman of the Appellate Division in Western New York, Judge Valerie Nelson of the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and Ellen Biben, an administrative judge in New York City and Cuomo’s first appointee to direct the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

Stein, 64, has been a member of the seven-judge Court of Appeals since February 2015.