Riverhead Town Justice
The Riverhead Town Justice Court deals with misdemeanors and preliminary actions in felony cases. It also handles vehicle and traffic matters, landlord-tenant matters, including evictions, small claims for civil disputes involving claims up to $3,000, and town code violations.
The salary of a town justice is currently $88,000 per year. There are two incumbent town justices, each of whom serves four-year terms.
Sean Walter is a registered Conservative seeking election to a second term on the Republican and Conservative Party lines. He was appointed to the bench by the Riverhead Town Board following the death of longtime judge Allen Smith in 2020. He was elected to the bench in November of that year.
Walter, 58, of Wading River, earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science at SUNY Binghamton in 1988. He later attended St. John’s University School of Law, where he earned a law degree in 1999.
He has had a private law practice in Wading River and has worked in Riverhead Town government, including as a deputy town attorney, and as Riverhead Town supervisor, a position he was elected to four times and in which he served from 2010 through 2017. He is married and the father of three adult children.
Walter says his record in public office and on the bench demonstrates fairness and integrity.
Walter is being challenged by William Condon, a retired State Supreme Court Justice in Suffolk County.
Condon, 65, of Aquebogue, is a registered Conservative running on the Democratic Party line. He served as a Justice of the State Supreme Court from 2009 to 2022. He maintains a private law practice specializing in arbitration and mediation since his retirement from the state bench.
Condon attended State University of New York at Albany, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1981. He then earned a law degree from Hofstra University School of Law in 1985. Prior to his election to the bench in 2008, he was in private practice and served for eight years as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County.
Condon says he is much more experienced and more qualified to serve on the town court bench than the current incumbent.
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