Longtime jurist named interim administrative judge of Queens' top criminal court
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Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder will serve as interim administrative judge in Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term until a permanent replacement for former Administrative Judge Donna-Marie Golia is appointed. File photo courtesy of Holder
By Jacob Kaye
Court officials said this week that a longtime Queens judge will serve as the interim administrative judge in Queens’ top criminal court until a permanent replacement is found to fill the vacancy left by former Administrative Judge Donna-Marie Golia’s elevation to the appellate division.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder will serve as the interim administrative judge in Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term, beginning Sept. 3, according to a memo obtained by the Eagle that was sent by Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zays to Queens judges this week.
Holder’s interim appointment to the role comes around two weeks after Golia was appointed by the governor to serve as a judge in the Appellate Division, Second Department, marking the second time in the past four years that Queens’ top criminal court judge was elevated to the appeals court.
Since Golia’s ascension to the appellate bench, the seat atop Queens’ top criminal court has been filled by a rotating cast of senior justices. However, Holder will be the first and only judge to officially hold the position in an interim capacity.
He will serve in the role “until a successor is appointed,” the memo read.
Meanwhile, the search for the next administrative judge in Queens Criminal Court continues.
Officials in the Office of Court Administration gave judges around two weeks to apply for the job.
Those hoping to serve as the administrative judge of the court were required to submit their names for the job by Wednesday, Aug. 28. Court officials are expected to begin interviewing candidates during the first week of September and could potentially select the court’s next administrative judge before the end of the month.
But until a permanent administrative judge is appointed, the court will be overseen by a justice who has served on its bench for well over a decade.
Holder was first elected to the Supreme Court in Queens in 2008 and, after serving his 14-year term in the role, was reelected to the court in 2021.
During his tenure, he has overseen some of the most violent and high-profile murder cases to come through the Queens court.
Holder is currently the presiding judge in the case against Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, a Venezuelan migrant accused of shooting two cops in East Elmhurst in June.
Earlier this year, Holder oversaw the prosecution of Sean Brown, who was convicted for shooting in 2019 Aamir Griffin, a 14-year-old boy who was playing on a basketball court in the Baisley Park Houses. Holder sentenced Brown to 30 years in prison in April.
Holder also oversaw the trial of Jagger Freeman, who was convicted of felony murder in the death of NYPD detective Brian Simonsen, who was shot by his fellow officers during a 2019 robbery in Richmond Hill orchestrated by Freeman. The trial, which lasted two months, ended also with a 30-year sentence for Freeman.
Holder, who grew up between London, Canada, Jamaica, Brooklyn and Queens, got his start in the law in the Queens district attorney’s office.
Working as bureau chief of the Narcotics Trial Division during the crack epidemic led Holder to help found Queens’ drug treatment court, which has now been up and running for over two decades.
Holder was first elected to the bench in 2006, when he won his race for Queens Civil Court. He was immediately assigned to the Kings County Criminal Court.
Two years later, he was assigned to Brooklyn’s Supreme Court, Civil Term, before winning his election for Queens Supreme Court justice. He’s served in the World’s Borough ever since.
Holder’s term as interim administrative judge is expected to last through the end of September, when a permanent AJ is likely to be appointed.
Whoever takes over the job will be the fourth person to hold the position in as many years.
Now-Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas left the post in 2021 after being appointed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as an associate justice in the Appellate Division, Second Department. Zayas went on to serve in the appellate court for around two years before being named the second-highest ranking judge in the state in 2023.
After Zayas’ elevation, George Grasso was appointed to serve as the Queens court’s AJ.
Grasso served in the judicial position for around a year. In 2022, the former police officer announced his retirement and launched a bid for Queens district attorney, a race he lost to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Several weeks after Grasso’s departure, Golia was selected to serve as the court’s administrative judge. She served in the role for almost exactly two years.
Golia began her judicial career after being elected to the Queens County Civil Court in 2013. Her first assignment was to serve on the Criminal Court bench in the World’s Borough. Several years later, she was named an acting Supreme Court justice and became the supervising judge in Queens Civil Court in 2018.
Golia was elected to the State Supreme Court, Queens County in 2020, and appointed as an associate justice of the Appellate Term, Second Department for the Second, Eleventh and Thirteenth Judicial Districts in January 2021.
The CUNY Law School graduate began her career in the Queens courts as a court attorney referee and principal law clerk in Surrogate’s Court. She also spent more than a decade with the Queens district attorney’s office.
