Named to Appellate Court
Governor Promotes 4 Justices

By REUVEN BLAU

Governor Spitzer Jan. 15 appointed four veteran State Supreme Court Justices to fill vacancies in the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: 'Distinguished' upgrades.

The new Justices are: Ariel E. Belen, Cheryl E. Chambers, Randall T. Eng, and John M. Leventhal. "These are four of the most distinguished jurists in New York State, who together have more than 60 years of judicial experience," Governor Spitzer said in a statement.

He noted that the Appellate Division, Second Department is among the busiest courts in the country, and its rulings affect 10 million residents, or more than half the population of the state.

Justice Belen has served as the Administrative Judge of the Civil Term of the Brooklyn Supreme Court since February 2007. He is also an Associate Justice of the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court of the Second and Eleventh Judicial Districts since April 2005.

Others' Backgrounds

Justice Chambers has served as a trial judge in Brooklyn since 1999, where she was assigned to both the Civil and Criminal Terms. In that role, she presided over complex high-profile criminal cases.

Justice Eng has served as a judge for more than 25 years, first on the Criminal Court bench and then on the State Supreme Court for the past 20 years. He has been a Queens Administrative Judge in the Criminal Term since March 2007.

Justice Leventhal has served as a trial judge for 14 years, where since 1996 he has been designated to preside over the nation's first felony Domestic Violence Court in Brooklyn.

The Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, as well as Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties. The Governor's appointments to the court are not subject to Senate confirmation.