- May 5, 2024
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Melissa Moore Stens
Age: 38
Famiy: Married, two children
Quirky Fact: Tries to take her kids on vacation to national parks every year
Bio: Melissa Moore Stens has been a standout student her whole life and graduated from the University of Florida College of Law in 1998. She is married to a detective with the Daytona Beach Police Department. Stens has worked for the State Attorney’s Office and was also the head of the Domestic Violence Unit in Putnam County. Stens is the president-elect of the Flagler County Bar Association. Partner in Williams & Moore.
What is one experience that led you to want to become a judge?
My mom raised me pretty much on her own as a police officer in Miami-Dade County and it was pretty much just the two of us. I’ve always been involved in the community and I somewhat had that legal background, so to speak, without knowing it.
I … graduated high school third in my class of almost 1,000 people and went to college and ended up graduating in 2.5 years. So I graduated high school 1992, college 1994, although I was working as manager of a clothing store I just wasn’t ready to take that career path. I was really interested in higher education and further degrees and I went to law school because I was enjoying my political science classes more than my psychology classes.
So when I went to law school, it was a whole new experience for me, but I just absolutely loved it. I love everything about the law; I love being a lawyer; I love helping people. I think my first experience with what a judge does was when I tried out for the moot court team. In your second semester of law school you’re required to take a class called appellate advocacy, and essentially you have to argue both sides of a legal point. … I was kind of a nervous wreck when I did it, but I really enjoyed it, that adrenaline, excitement of what’s going to happen. …
Being a lawyer for almost 14 years now, I’ve had many other experiences that I think have contributed to wanting that position and thinking that I would be good for it.
What qualities are essential in a county judge?
You have to be fair and impartial. You have to apply the facts as they are presented … Being a good listener and articulating the points that the litigants in front of you have brought up is critical in keeping the public satisfied. … And I feel that since I have been both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, that I have that broad range of experience and understand what both sets of lawyers walking into that courtroom are going through.
Being a prosecutor isn’t easy. I did it for 2.5 years. Victims are unhappy with you at certain times; police officers aren’t happy with you at certain times. I was in charge of all domestic violence prosecutions. So when you have a victim who called 911 the night of, and a week later wants her husband back in the house because she can’t pay her bills, and all those domestic dynamics that come into play and that person doesn’t want you to prosecute her husband, but the person’s been arrested five times before and the neighbor called 911 and you can hear her screaming in the background and she had a busted lip when the cop got there. Is that a case you want to drop, even if the person wants you to drop it? That’s the job of a prosecutor and it’s not an easy job to do.
Same thing with being a defense attorney: It’s not an easy job either. … I’ve got situations where I’ve got a client who I can tell has a drug problem, the family knows he has a drug problem, wants me to get him drug treatment but that person doesn’t want that because they’re not at that stage in their life where they’re ready to move on from that. …
I feel like my ties to this community are significant. My husband and I moved here in 2000 … and we just fell in love with it. … Our kids are in the public school system here, and I volunteer. … This isn’t stuff that I’ve just started doing because of wanting to be a judge; I’ve been involved in this community and invested in this community for many, many years.
What makes you the most qualified out of all the candidates in this race?
I think having been a prosecutor and a defense attorney is one of the main things that sets me apart. … I’m the only candidate who holds any kind of board certification, and it’s quite difficult to become board certified. You have to have been practicing for a certain number of years and you have to have a certain number of trials that have been tried to verdict in front of a jury. Once you have those qualifications, then you can fill out the application, which I want to say is about 30 or 40 pages long. You have to fill out a sheet of paper on literally every jury trial you’ve ever done. … You have to have recommendations from judges, other attorneys, and they contact some of the opposing counsel. …
Once you’ve gone through that process … there’s an examination, and it’s a full-day, part essay part multiple choice. I believe about 25-30% of people who take it pass the exam. I passed it the first time I took it. … I became board certified in 2006, and became recertified in 2011. … There are seven attorneys in Flagler County who hold board certification, out of all the attorneys who practice here. And I’m the only one board certified who’s running for this position.
If elected, what changes would you make to the way county court is run?
This job is actually doing the job of two judges anywhere else. There’s just no funding for a second judge. So it’s really going to be about doing the work efficiently, and getting systems into place to make that efficiency. … I would work with everybody who’s involved in the court system, the clerks, the deputies … and be a good listener.
