Judicial Election Results: Cohen, Neckles and Lopez Torres Win

BROOKLYN—In Tuesday’s judicial elections, Caroline Cohen, Margarita Lopez Torres and Bernadette Neckles came out on top.

With 99 percent of the ballot scanners reported as of early Wednesday morning, Cohen won the 6th Municipal District Civil Court judge race, decisively beating her four opponents by earning 43 percent of the vote in a race that drew 14,924 voters. The district includes Park Slope, Crown Heights, Kensington, Flatbush, Midwood, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Prospect Park South, and Ditmas Park.

“I want to thank the voters in Brooklyn’s 6th Municipal District for putting their trust in me,” Cohen said Wednesday morning in a statement. “This victory is your victory and when I am on the bench I promise that every member of our community is treated with compassion, regardless of gender, race, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, or citizenship.”

Alice Nicholson, who specializes in foreclosure law, was the runner up, receiving about 23 percent of the vote. Behind her was Chinyelu Udoh, who works for Civil Court judge Carol Feinman, getting 19 percent of the vote. The 14 percent of the vote that Tehilah Berman, a clerk for Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Katherine Levine, put her in fourth place.

Neckles, for her part, trounced opponent Edward King in the county-wide Civil Court Judge race. Neckles, a Court Attorney Referee in Kings County Supreme Court, earned 72 percent to the 28 percent that King, a solo practitioner focusing on civil law. Neckles received over 19,000 more votes than did King on the 43,493-voter election day.

In the Surrogate Court judge race, 46,707 voters cast ballots, 24,610, or 52 percent, of them choosing Lopez Torres, the incumbent. Challengers Meredith Jones and Elena Baron received 25 and 22 percent of the vote, respectively.