People gathered at OCYC to honor man who president over Ocean City Municipal Court for 46 years
OCEAN CITY — A week after Ocean City Municipal Court Judge Richard A. Russell retired from the bench, the legal community, friends and family came out to honor the man they say conducted himself with grace and dignity for 46 years as a judge and how he was a mentor, role model and inspiration for them.
During a dinner Nov. 6 at the Ocean City Yacht Club, scores of community members turned out for Russell, who served continuously as Municipal Court judge from 1980 to 2026 on the barrier island where he grew up from the age of 12.
This Rutgers University and New York Law School graduate passed the Bar in 1973, started working for local firm Loveland, Hughes and Garrett, where he spent 22 years, then began his own family law practice in 1996.
In addition to his own 47-year law practice, he was city solicitor for Corbin City (46 years) and Estell Manor (24 years), along with being the Municipal Court judge in Woodbine Borough for 20 years.
While Russell worked 16 hours a day being on call 24/7 for 46 years, he used his spare time to serve on 10 Supreme Court committees, traveling across the state, and spent 40 years on the executive committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association Family Law Section, including a term as chair. Since 2005 he has been named to the top 100 “Super Lawyers” in Family Law in New Jersey.
He has volunteered to lecture on family law and Municipal Court issues and for a quarter-century taught every new Municipal Court judge how to handle domestic violence cases.
Suffice it to say, he touched many lives professionally and tens of thousands more from his time leading his courtroom.
The stories and accolades about him went almost non-stop throughout the evening, both from those standing up to speak to the audience and to relate stories to the Ocean City Sentinel.
Melodie Perri may be the judge’s oldest friend. They have known each other since they were 12 years old, when Russell moved to Ocean City. They were in the same class in school when the school was in what became the city’s Public Safety building on Central Avenue.
“We were friends. We never dated, but have always remained friends. I’ve just always loved him,” she said. “My kids grew up with his kids. He is humble. He is kind. He’s passionate about what he does.
“When marriage equality became law, I called Richard and said, ‘We want you to marry us.’ He said, ‘OK, right after my dentist appointment.’ And that’s how we were married,” she said about her nuptials with Sue Forrest.
Mary Garrett recalled when the judge got his first job as an attorney with Loveland, Hughes and Garrett, the law firm of her late husband, Bob.
“We have been very close friends for the past 50 years. He and Bob were very, very close. He is wonderful. He’s a great guy. He’s kind, smart, good attorney, good judge. And he has a wonderful wife and wonderful family.”
“I’ve known the judge for over 30 years. I’ve always respected him and his family and always respected what he’s done professionally,” Ocean City Council President Terry Crowley Jr. said. “More important, as an Ocean City person, he and his wife have given back over the years. He’s a strong member of our community. I know he’s still going to be involved, and I look forward to him still contributing to Ocean City.”
Attorney Jon Batastini called Russell “a super human being.”
“He did the work out of pure wanting to help society. He’s just a great guy,” he said.
Cape May County Surrogate Judge E. Marie Hayes remembers when she was a young detective working for the Prosecutor’s Office.
“I would have search warrants and we would have to get them signed by whoever was on call. And I always prayed it would be Judge Russell, because in the middle of the night, some judges can be a little cranky, OK,” she said. “He never was. He always asked me how my family was doing. I mean, I’m there to get a search warrant, but he’s asking about my family and all the kids and what’s going on. He was an absolute delight.”
Former Judge Louis J. Belasco Jr. called Russell a pioneer, “the most technically astute judge that we had,” a “go-to expert” after the state passed the prevention of domestic violence act in 1991, and a mentor not only to him, but other judges and to his own court staff.
Jay Gillian is the latest of the Ocean City mayors who appointed Russell as municipal court judge to his 16 three-year terms. He was first appointed in 1980. He and Crowley told him when the new Public Safety Building and Municipal Court is constructed, the new courtroom will be named for Judge Russell.
Superior Court Judge M. Susan Sheppard, who became the assignment judge in the Atlantic/Cape May Vicinage in 2025, recalled when she was on Ocean City Council, reappointing Judge Russell was always on the consent agenda because there was never any question about the reappointment.
Sheppard said Russell has taught new judges for decades.
“We call it Baby Judge School because regardless of the age, they don’t know what they’re doing.” Russell, she said, has always been a consummate professional.
Municipal Public Defender Ed Devlin said the number of cases Russell heard over his tenure was “absolutely staggering.” They would fill all of Philadelphia’s sports venues five to 10 times over.
“I practiced before Russell since 1990. I can tell you that out of all the people I’ve heard before him, I’ve never had a single person say that they were treated unfairly,” Devlin said.
Ocean City police officers Alexandra Sharp and Joseph Giordano presented the judge with a plaque, thanking him for answering the phone at all hours of the night and how much respect they had for him and his administration of justice.
Police Chief William Campbell said Russell and his staff represented “the gold standard.”
Jennifer Bowman, a longtime friend of the judge and his family, remembered a court case involving a man who raced by the Ocean City Yacht Club in a speedboat “at mach speed,” a situation that endangers “three little sailors” bringing their little boats to the dock. She witnessed the incident and informally helped with the detective work, having taken a photo of the boat on a trailer earlier.
“So when I saw it go by and almost run over our children, I called the police and I had the serial number and they were able to identify him,” she said. A parent pressed charges. Bowman had to go to court over Zoom. It was her first experience like that.
“I’m on the Zoom call in the office and I see all these people pop up in the screen and the offender was lackadaisical in his living room in sweatpants and he was totally unprepared. I have never seen Judge Russell so angry,” she recalled. Russell, she said, admitted that he had never been that angry with somebody. I got to see a side of him that I never wanted to see as an offender.”
Bowman related that story because the judge was known for his friendly and compassionate disposition. (After that, the defendant got himself an attorney, she noted.)
Allison Eiselen Southard, an assistant prosecutor in Atlantic County, was the host and emcee at the Yacht Club. She met the judge as a college junior aspiring to go to law school when she approached him for an internship.
“With his mentorship, friendship and guidance, he had a profound impact on my life and career,” she told the large gathering. “I suspect that many of us here tonight can say the same.”
Walking into his law office during college, she said, “changed the course of my life.”
After feeling defeated during a full day after no other attorneys she approached had work for an aspiring law student, her mother encouraged her to go the Russell’s office. “Mom was right. That day turned out to be one of the most important days of my personal and professional life.”
She hit it off with Russell right away, finding personal connections — both Ocean City High School graduates, both having lived in the same neighborhood in London, both with similar family business backgrounds.
“He told me he was winding down his law practice and preparing for retirement,” she said, laughing because that was in 2008. The retirement party didn’t take place until 18 years later.
Although she talked about the many things she learned from the judge, working for him up until her 2012 graduation from Rutger’s Law School, she smiled remembering an odd question he asked her at the internship interview.
“He asked, ‘Can you lift 50 pounds?’” She didn’t understand the question at the time, but as a college crew team member, she said it would be no problem.
Once she started the internship, “I quickly learned this question about lifting 50 pounds was no joke. I spent much of my time hauling banker’s boxes up and down and up and down the stairs, moving files between on-site and off-site storage,” she said.
To that end, when she presented the judge with a plaque that evening, she hauled it out of a banker’s box.
“I would not be where I am today without your guidance, mentorship and friendship,” she told him.
Former municipal prosecutor Douglas Walker was appointed by Mayor Gillian as the new municipal judge upon Russell’s retirement.
“Municipal court judges are standard bearers for the judiciary,” Walker said. “None were better than Russell.”
As a practicing attorney for 39 years who has appeared before federal and state courts, the new judge said, “I can tell you without hesitation that Judge Russell’s integrity, independence and professionalism ranks highest by any comparison. He approaches each case with confidence and humility. And while this patience can be tested, he was rare to express it. More often, he sought to de-escalate the situation.”
“In all his years on the bench, Judge Russell never lost sight of the judiciary’s core values, fairness, independence and access . … For that, we thank you. Ocean City thanks him for his dedicated public service to our community.”
Russell’s daughter, Rachel, and son, Rich, both spoke glowingly about their father.
Rachel said she never knew her dad not to be working, being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but that also meant he was always there to take her calls.
“As I’ve gotten older, I realized how much I modeled myself after my father,” she said, citing his work ethic, his integrity and protecting the people around him.
“You have shown me there are people in this world who will lose sleep to protect each other,” she said, “who will act in kindness, compassion and integrity literally every hour of every day. … You have shown me there is a better place because of people like you.”
“Our parents always believe that people can change the circumstances of their lives,” her brother Rich said of his father and mother, Effie. “Their work, our mom as a teacher and college professor, and dad … reflected this sense of their passion for justice and ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity.”
For his part, Judge Russell said he was honored and completely embarrassed about the attention.
“I wouldn’t be there without the people who supported me in the court office for all those years,” he said, taking pains to single out the many members of his staff. “It is the secret sauce of my ability to be here tonight.”
He also thanked the many other judges, prosecutors, public defenders and attorneys he worked with over the years.
“The muscle memory from being on call 24 hours a day for 46 years is still haunting me,” he said. “One thing I have felt bad about for a long time is all that I missed while I was working 16 hours a day … all those years.”
Smiling, he added, “I feel like my main contribution to child rearing when the kids were young was giving Effie the ability to say, ‘Wait until your father gets home.’ So the answer to the question about retirement now is that it is time. Is time for me to be home.”
He said he can now enjoy his family without distraction.
“I just want to spend my time supporting them and appreciating how lucky I am,” Russell said. “That’s my final verdict.”
He and his wife added a twist, that they would pay for the large gathering and that all the money people paid for the event would be donated to the Cape May County Bar Association to pay for scholarships for needy Cape May County high school seniors to attend college.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
