Could Dutchess County Get an All-Woman, All-Democrat Bench? High-Stakes Race Centers Issue of Domestic Violence

The election for County Court Judge this November features a face-off between two candidates with a tangled past and differing judicial philosophies. One-term incumbent Republican Edward T. McLoughlin is being challenged by Democrat Kara Gerry, who is the criminal unit bureau chief at the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office.

A high-profile murder case unites the two and is likely to become a focal point of the campaign.  In 2017, Nikki Addimando was arrested for killing her abusive partner, for which she claimed self-defense. McLoughlin presided over the trial in a case that highlighted an ongoing debate over how the criminal justice system treats survivors of domestic violence. Gerry served as Addimando’s defense attorney for eight months before McLoughlin controversially removed her one week before trial, a decision later called into question by the New York State Bar Association Ethics Committee. 

The election is a rare opportunity for voters to have their say about how criminal justice is administered in the county. The Dutchess County Court, which has jurisdiction over felony criminal cases and civil cases up to $25,000, consists of only two seats, with judges serving 10-year terms. The most recent race to fill a position on the court, in 2020, saw Jessica Segal dislodge one-term incumbent Peter Forman, making her the first Democrat elected to the court since 1991, and only the second woman. Segal took 51.7 percent of the vote.

If Gerry is successful in unseating McLoughlin, it would create the first all-female County Court in Dutchess County’s history and a highly unusual, if not unprecedented, Democratic sweep of jurisprudence. 

“The role of a county court judge is pivotal in our criminal justice system, serving as a cornerstone for upholding the rule of law and ensuring justice is served fairly and impartially,” Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi told The Daily Catch. “This election is not just about selecting a judge; it is about choosing a guardian of justice who will influence the lives of countless individuals and the community at large.”

Prior to becoming a judge, McLoughlin spent decades as a prosecutor. On his campaign website, he portrays himself as a law-and-order candidate, with a campaign slogan that reads, “Without Justice, There is Chaos.” 

Despite six separate requests for comment over more than a month, McLoughlin and the Dutchess County Republican Committee declined to provide their views on the campaign, their opponent, or the judge’s positions to The Daily Catch.  

“It has been a true honor and blessing to preside in this court,” says McLoughlin on his campaign website. “I’m guided by the due process values of individuals, and the important safety values of our community.” 

After graduating from Pace University School of Law in 1992, McLoughlin spent the following 23 years as a trial prosecutor for the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office. In addition to serving on the County Court, in 2017, former Chief Justice Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks appointed McLoughlin to be an acting Supreme Court Justice through 2026. The Dutchess County Republican Committee, County Executive Sue Serino, and Sheriff Kirk Imperati have all endorsed his reelection. 

McLoughlin’s opponent, Kara Gerry, vows that, if elected, she will provide a more nuanced approach to criminal justice than her opponent, one that draws from her past experience both as a prosecutor and a public defender. 

“Prior to becoming a judge, my opponent’s career was heavily rooted in one side of the justice system,” Gerry told The Daily Catch. “Justice is not one-dimensional, and a judge should not carry the mindset of a prosecutor into the courtroom. It’s not just about convictions; it’s about fairness and protecting the rights of all people, especially the most vulnerable.” 

Gerry also graduated from Pace University School of Law. After that 2005 graduation, she went on to serve as an Assistant District Attorney in Orange County for three years before joining her father’s law firm to focus on civil litigation, personal injury, and real estate matters. In 2013, Gerry began working in the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office. After spending five years as a Senior Assistant Public Defender, Gerry was elevated to serve as one of the criminal unit’s four bureau chiefs, where she supervises a team of six attorneys in addition to handling her own caseload.   

For Gerry, McLoughlin’s rulings in the Addimando murder case still rankle. Gerry represented Addimando from September 2017 to May 2018, while they prepared a legal defense centered on a well-documented history of abuse by Addimando’s boyfriend, including death threats. However, just before the trial began, the prosecution requested that Gerry be removed from the case due to an alleged conflict of interest.

“The alleged conflict was that the prosecution wanted to call a witness my office had represented years earlier in an unrelated DWI case, one I was not even present for,” Gerry said. “The prosecution described this witness as vital to their case and made a motion to have me removed.”

Judge McLoughlin granted the prosecution’s motion, dismissing Gerry from the case. However, the witness in question was never mentioned again and was never called to testify before the jury. The New York State Bar Association Ethics Committee later determined that there was no clear conflict of interest that would have required Gerry’s removal.

“It was a huge setback for Nikki,” Gerry said. “At that point, she had to start from scratch with new attorneys, while the prosecutor now had an eight-month head start. In my opinion, it just gave the prosecutor a huge advantage.”

Then, in a ruling that provoked outrage at the time, McLoughlin declined to apply the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, a 2019 law that allows for reduced sentences for domestic violence survivors when the abuse they suffered was a significant contributing factor in their criminal behavior. McLoughlin argued that Addimando could have left the relationship at any time and that she had “reluctantly consented” to some of the abuse, including having pornographic videos of her being assaulted uploaded to the Internet. 

McLoughlin sentenced Addimando to 19 years to life in prison, but the Court of Appeals later reduced the sentence, explicitly rejecting McLoughlin’s reasoning. The appeals court ruled that Addimando’s history of repeated sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, as well as expert testimony on its impact, clearly established that the abuse was a significant contributing factor in her actions.

“The court premised its analysis on a presumption or notion that the defendant could have avoided further abuse at the hands of [Christopher] Grover. We will not engage in any such presumption,” the Second Department of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court wrote in its opinion. 

On appeal, Addimando’s sentence was reduced to 7 1⁄2 years, and she was released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in October 2024.

“As a prosecutor, I’ve advocated for victims of violence. And as a defense attorney, I’ve defended the rights of the accused,” said Gerry. “This has taught me that true justice must center people, not just process.” 

Gerry also said domestic violence cases deserve a unique view from the bench. “I’ve seen the gaps, particularly when it comes to how our courts treat issues like domestic violence,” she said. “These cases demand more than a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach. Women who come to court seeking protection, fairness, or a voice in a system that has historically failed them deserve a judge who understands the urgency and complexity of those situations.”

The Addimando case was not the only time McLoughlin’s rulings have been criticized for their severity. According to a recent study by the Center for Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law, between 2015 and 2023, four of his sentences were appealed on the grounds that they were excessive. The study, which looked at sentencing appeals across New York City and 10 Hudson Valley counties, ranked McLoughlin fifteenth on a list of judges with the most sentences reduced on appeal out of 140 judges sampled. 

Election Day is Nov. 4. 

The post Could Dutchess County Get an All-Woman, All-Democrat Bench? High-Stakes Race Centers Issue of Domestic Violence first appeared on The Daily Catch.