Belvin Perry
{{Short description|American judge (born 1949)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Belvin Perry Jr.
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| office = Chief Judge of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit (retired)
| term_start = 1989
| term_end = 2014
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| birth_date = {{birth_date and age|1949|10|10|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Orlando, Florida, U.S.
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| birthname = Belvin Perry Jr.
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| residence = Orlando, Florida, U.S.
| alma_mater = Tuskegee University (BS, MEd)
Texas Southern University (JD)
| occupation = Attorney
| profession = attorney, judge
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Belvin Perry Jr. (born October 10, 1949, in Orlando, Florida) is a personal-injury attorney and former chief judge of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit.{{cite web|url=http://www.ninthcircuit.org/judges/chief_judge/|work=Ninth Judicial Circuit|title=Chief Judge Belvin Perry, Jr.|accessdate=21 June 2011|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718140526/http://www.ninthcircuit.org/judges/chief_judge/|archivedate=18 July 2011|url-status=dead}} He was the presiding judge for the high-profile Casey Anthony murder trial.
Early life and career
Perry's father, Belvin Perry, Sr. (October 8, 1920–May 16, 1995) served as one of Orlando's first two African-American police officers.[http://www.cfnews13.com/article/entertainment/2011/february/199154 Taken from Central Florida News 13's "Black History In The Making" series] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812071508/http://www.cfnews13.com/article/entertainment/2011/february/199154 |date=August 12, 2011 }} Retrieved 5 Aug. 2011[https://web.archive.org/web/20141104155315/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1995-05-17/news/9505170269_1_belvin-perry-officer-perry-police-officer Belvin Perry Sr., Pioneering Black Police Officer, Dies, by Debbie Salamone and Christopher Quinn, Orlando Sentinel (.com) staff, published May 17, 1995, accessed May 8, 2013.]
Perry earned his Bachelor of Science degree in History in 1972 from Tuskegee University. In 1974 he earned his Masters of Education from the same university. In 1977, Perry received a Juris Doctor degree from Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Perry is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
=1997: Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit=
A former Court Administration employee, Janis Williamson, filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the State of Florida, after being fired by then Chief Judge Belvin Perry after a two-year love affair. The former court worker received $65,000 from State taxpayers to settle her claim that Orlando’s former chief judge provoked her firing after their love affair ended. The 51-year-old former deputy court administrator, who was single, was fired in January 1997. She maintained she had an affair with the married judge between 1990 and 1996.{{cite news |last1=Orlando Sentinel |first1=Orlando Sentinel |title=$65,000 TO END COURT SCANDAL |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1999/10/12/65000-to-end-court-scandal/ |access-date=17 May 2025 |agency=News Paper |publisher=Orlando Sentinel |date=October 12, 1999}}
Judge Perry has been involved in two of Central Florida's most highly publicized trials. As a prosecutor, Perry was the lead attorney in the case of Florida v. Buenoaño, in which Judy Buenoano was tried and convicted of killing her son Michael Goodyear and her husband at the time, James Goodyear. As a Circuit Court Judge, Perry presided over the case "State of Florida v. Casey Marie Anthony" (Case Number 2008 CF15606-0, in which Casey Anthony was charged in the death of her daughter Caylee Anthony. The jury found Anthony not guilty of First Degree Murder, Aggravated Child Abuse, and Aggravated Manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of Providing False Information to a Law Enforcement Officer.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110817072313/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/05/florida.casey.anthony.trial/ Casey Anthony not guilty of murder, other charges in daughter's death]
In 2014, Perry retired from the bench and immediately joined the Orlando law firm of Morgan & Morgan as a personal-injury attorney.[http://www.forthepeople.com/attorneys/belvin-perry-jr/ Belvin Perry, Jr. Attorney's page at Morgan & Morgan]{{cite web | url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-morgan-morgan-belvin-perry-20140903-story.html | title=Belvin Perry signs on at Morgan firm as personal-injury attorney | work=Orlando Sentinel | date=September 3, 2014 | accessdate=January 26, 2015 | author=Weiner, Jeff}}
See also
References
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Category:African-American judges
Category:Florida state court judges
Category:Lawyers from Orlando, Florida
Category:Jones High School (Orlando, Florida) alumni
Category:Thurgood Marshall School of Law alumni