26
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 8-14, 2022
Presiding during the
pandemic was ‘quite a
challenge,’ says judge
BY NELSON A. KING
Civil Court Judge of The City of New
York, Sandra Elena Roper says that presiding
during the COVID-19 pandemic
was “quite a challenge.”
Judge Roper — an Afro-Latina, of Caribbean
ancestry, who was elected to the
Civil Court in November 2017 by the people
of Brooklyn as the insurgent Democratic
and Reform Party candidate —
said that, despite the challenges, during
the pandemic, she “admirably rose to
the occasion,” so much so that her working
hours “became 24/7”, as she was “researching
and writing decisions and orders
in the wee hours of the night.”
“There is a misconception that the
court was closed. Not at all!” said Judge
Roper, who migrated to the US at age
seven from Panama with her maternal
grandparents, Lionel and Cecilia Scott.
She is the eldest child of Ralph and Norma
Roper.
Judge Roper said her Costa Rican father
“walked over the border” with his Jamaican
parents at age nine, so her grandfather
could work on the Panama Canal.
Ralph Roper’s maternal Jamaican grandfather
was a railroad worker, Judge Roper
said.
She said her maternal grandparents
were Panamanian of Barbadian ancestry.
During the pandemic, Judge Roper
said her “stately courtroom” — where she
delivered justice, “with its beautiful panoramic
view,” and where she held several
weddings — “morphed” into her home
courtroom.
She told Brooklyn Paper’s sister publication
Caribbean Life that, once she
donned her judicial robe, she “deliberated
and delivered justice at home no differently”
than if her courtroom was in-person,
“albeit there were occasional technical
glitches.”
Judge Roper said she had the “laborious
mission,” as the Pandemic Motion
Judge in Kings Civil Court — arguably
the busiest court in the State of New York,
“to churn out decisions and orders daily
and nightly”, stating that she “certainly
kept the court dockets moving.”
“A diffi cult challenge during the pandemic
was fi nding counsel of record; and,
even more diffi cult, was fi nding unrepresented
litigants,” she said.
Prior to the pandemic, Judge Roper
said emails were not required on the
court’s paperwork.
So, in short order, Judge Roper, with
her very diligent court attorney, said she
“developed an email database that included
Judge Sandra Elena Roper. Sandra Elena Roper
the emails of counsel, marshals
and unrepresented litigants, which, in
and of itself, was yeoman’s work.”
Pre-pandemic, Judge Roper said she
had “a cadre of court staff to help,” which,
during the pandemic, “in essence, dwindled”
to just Judge Roper and her court attorney.
Notwithstanding the myriad of pandemic
challenges, Judge Roper said she
ensured that all cases before her were
“fully and thoroughly deliberated.”
Within a month of the world’s pandemic
shut-down, she said she authored a
timely pandemic seminal case of fi rst impression.
There, she acknowledged that, “particularly
in the gentrifying communities of
our city, the small brick and mortar businesses
as the lifeblood of our functioning
society, which builds communities, must
be protected and any undue interference
may be regulated by the Legislature, notwithstanding
the private right to contract
in our capitalistic society,” Judge Roper
said.
Now, amid the pandemic shutdown,
she said the landlord resorted to “shenanigans”
and violated the 2019 Harassment
Law”.
Judge Roper said, while education
is her family’s watchword, she was also
raised to “love, respect, be kind and generous
to all.”
For more on Judge Roper, visit CaribbeanLife.
com.
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