Martin County holds ceremony to install judge
June 28th, 2009 by Daphne Duret
Circuit Judge Gary Sweet (left) swears in Darren Steele on Friday.
The crowd that spilled out onto the second-floor stairwell at the Martin County Courthouse last week made the ceremony about to begin inside the courtroom appear more like a rock concert than the installation of a new judge.
But as the people waited - some only to be guided to an equally packed overflow room on the third floor - Darren Steele’s family members, friends and supporters called the turnout fitting for the former defense attorney who worked himself through the public defender’s office and private practice before becoming one of the Treasure Coast’s youngest judges.
“When you’re in private practice and you have a dilemma, your partner kind of becomes your legal rabbi, so to speak,” said Robert Watson, Steele’s former law partner.
“And for me, at every turn his inclination was always towards the higher road.”
Even the lows for Steele on his road to judgeship were ones that the affable Boston native took in stride.
In 2004, after finishing fourth in a five-way primary for a circuit judge’s seat, Steele remembers being disappointed for a day before quickly moving on.
“I think what most people view as lost opportunities actually become chance for something better later on,” Steele said.
For Steele the time came in May, when Gov. Charlie Crist appointed him to replace Judge David Harper, who was the longest sitting judge in Florida’s history with 38 years on the bench when he died in March. Steele addressed Harper’s children at the ceremony last week, calling their father irreplaceable.
“Very few people are as wise and authentic as your dad was,” he told them.
“These are his chambers. I’m just keeping them warm.”
Steele says though he loves to laugh outside the courtroom, he brings a serious demeanor to presiding over county court cases, which he has done since mid-June.
He knows he will have to endure another election season when he runs to keep his seat next summer, but for now he remains focused on the new job and said he may not have been able to do it as well had it not been for the other big change in his life: becoming a family man.
In the past two years, Steele - who is fluent in Spanish and once volunteered in the Israeli army - has become husband to wife Noreda and father to two children, 9-year-old Lucas and 5-month-old Katie.
“When you go home every day to a wife who loves you and kids who think you’re great, it gives you a better ability to handle the stresses of the day,” he said.
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