Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s daughter, Alexandra DiFiore Murphy, is planning to run in 2019 for a County Court seat in Westchester County, according to an article in the Yonkers Times.
The move has stirred controversy, the Times reported, because Murphy, who is an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, is seen as an interloper in Westchester, because she is seeking to leapfrog ahead of four Westchester-based candidates: Westchester Assistant District Attorney Robert Prisco; Amy S. Puerto, who is Westchester County Court Judge Helen M. Blackwood’s law secretary; Ossining Town Justice Michael L. Tawil; and Noah D. Sorkin of Chappaqua.
According to two sources, Murphy’s father (and Chief Judge DiFiore’s husband), Dennis E. Glazer, who retired as a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell in 2012, has met with key Democratic Party officials in Westchester promoting Murphy’s candidacy. The same sources reported that Second Department Presiding Justice Alan D. Scheinkman has also met with Westchester Democratic leaders on Murphy’s behalf. One of them reported that Glazer shepherded his daughter (Murphy) to a barbecue hosted by Scheinckman.
Murphy’s prospect of landing a County Court seat in Westchester increased three-fold last September when two County Court judges were nominated for Supreme Court, a move that brought the number of County Court vacancies to three.
Neither Murphy nor her father, Glazer, returned telephone calls seeking comment.
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