An appellate court judge must be deeply connected to the people, a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals said Wednesday.
“It’s as relevant as being a trial lawyer,” Lexington Municipal Judge Latrice Westbrooks said at a meeting of the Greenwood Voters League. “Though Court of Appeals judges are somewhat removed from the public, they hear a lot of criminal matters — drug cases, credit card theft, robbery, murder. At one point the Court of Appeals affirmed 90 percent of criminal cases in Mississippi.”
Westbrooks is running for the District 2, Place 2 position currently held by Judge Ceola James. James was chosen in November 2012 in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Leslie King after King’s appointment to the state Supreme Court.
Westbrooks’ is one of five contested races in Mississippi’s two highest courts on the ballot Nov. 8. She reminded attendees that her race will be number four on the ballot.
Born in Memphis, Westbrooks received her license to practice law in 1997 and has been in Mississippi for nearly 20 years.
She was the lead attorney in a Jackson case against Jim Walter Homes that secured a jury verdict for $13.1 million in damages.
In 2013, she went to work for the administration of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and was legal counsel for the Jackson Police Department.
From 2010 to 2014, Westbrooks hosted a radio call-in show, “Ask Latrice the Lawyer.” She has served as a municipal judge in Lexington since January 2015.
Westbrooks told the gathered crowd — which included state Sen. David Jordan, state Rep. Willie Perkins and Judge Carlos Palmer, among others — that she’d been taught the history of the civil rights movement as a girl growing up in Memphis and visiting grandparents and extended family in the Delta.
“My family’s property sits on the Tallahatchie River,” she said, emphasizing the importance of that connection to black history. “It’s important that we never forget our history, and it’s important to know who our judges are.”
Asked her thoughts on the “drug epidemic” in Mississippi by Jordan, Westbrooks said compassion is needed for users as well as a strong legal response to suppliers.
“A lot of people use and possess drugs who don’t get arrested,” she said. “There’s inequity in the courts, and they need good people in there to fix those errors.”
The evening ended with a brief report from Itta Bena mayor Thelma Collins, who announced her town has completed paying its $200,000 debt to the IRS.
“We’re blessed,” said Collins. “We’re paying our bills.”
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
