14
Caribbean Life, April 7-13, 2022
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 Caribbean Life on Sunday
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 (Brooklyn)
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 difficult challenge during the
pandemic was finding counsel of
record; and, even more difficult, was
finding 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 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 first impression.
There, she acknowledged that,
“particularly in the gentrifying communities
of our city, the small brick
Judge Sandra Elena Roper. Sandra Elena Roper
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.
Presiding during the pandemic quite
challenging: Judge Sandra Roper
Become a child
care provider.
$70 million in grants
for start-up costs.
Find planning resources
for application process.
ocfs.ny.gov/cc-deserts
/cc-deserts