Maria Cabret officially took office Friday as the first woman, the first Hispanic and the first Crucian to serve as presiding judge of the Territorial Court.
Chief U.S. District Judge Raymond Finch administered the oath of office in Territorial Court on St. Croix. The room was filled to overflowing with fellow jurists, other government officials, court employees, members of the legal community and family and friends.
Cabret succeeds Verne Hodge, who held the position for 20 of his 23 years as a judge until retiring last year. He now carries the title of presiding judge emeritus.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, who nominated Cabret to a third six-year term on the territorial bench last year and named her to succeed Hodge, described her as a firm but fair jurist. Praising her legal talents, he added that she "would make a wonderful governor and Senate president."
The current Senate president, Vargrave Richards, commended her for caring more about "what is right than what is expedient."
In her brief remarks, Cabret said she and each of her colleagues is committed to "the independence of the court." She referred to her new position as an "awesome undertaking."
Cabret's first job out of Howard University Law School was clerking for Finch when he was a Territorial Court judge. Gov. Alexander Farrelly appointed her to the bench in 1987. In 1994, Hodge named her to serve as administrative judge of the court's St. Croix division. Turnbull nominated her to succeed Hodge last October, and the Legislature unanimously confirmed the nomination in March.
At the swearing-in ceremony, Cabret's mother, Epifania Cabret, held the Bible for the oath of office and retired judge Eileen Petersen handed her a gavel engraved with her name.
Hodge raised ripples of laughter as he advised the new presiding judge to avoid working overtime "since I got in trouble for not taking time off." After retiring, Hodge submitted claims for a reported $400,000 in lieu of sick leave and vacation time not taken during his judicial career.
There was more laughter as Bridget Hodge, the retired judge's daughter, read a poem describing Cabret as "a three-way marvel" (a reference to her gender, ethnicity and island of birth) who needed "an extra-large gavel" – after which she and her father presented Cabret with one about three times normal size.
Five of the other six Territorial Court judges were present at the ceremony – Brenda Hollar, Audrey Thomas-Francis and Rhys Hodge from St. Thomas and Alphonso Andrews and Patricia Steele on St. Croix. The other St. Croix judge, Edgar Ross, had a jury trial in session.