By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Two Levy County attorneys, Sunshine Baynard from Chiefland and Arielle Screws from Williston are among six finalists being interviewed Tuesday for the vacant Levy County Judge position.
The 8th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission will meet Tuesday beginning at 9 a.m. in the Levy County Courthouse to interview the six finalists for county judge.
Norm Fugate, a Williston attorney who chairs the nominating committee, said it’s likely that the names of all six applicants will be sent to the governor’s office in alphabetical order.
The nominating committee won’t rank the applicants, he said.
The governor will choose the next county judge.
Former County Judge James T. Browning retired due to health issues earlier this year. The attorney chosen by the governor as county judge will serve the remainder of Browning’s term.
Applicants don’t have to live in Levy County to file an application. They must be living in Levy County by the time they begin serving as Levy County Judge.
Baynard and Screws come from different professional legal backgrounds, though both were raised in Levy County and graduated from local schools.
Baynard
Baynard served as a public defender in the 8th Judicial Circuit from 2005 to 2014 but then established her own law firm, Baynard Law, which she has operated from 2014 until now. She served as a Chiefland City Commissioner from 1999 to 2005.
Screws
Screws worked for several months as a receptionist for Fugate and Fugate Law in Williston before going to law school. Her first job as an attorney was working for a private law firm that specialized exclusively in personal injury cases. She was offered a position at the company but said she knew her calling was to work as an assistant state attorney. She worked as a state felony prosecutor from May 10, 2018 until now. She works in Levy County.
Westmoreland
Cheryl Dianne Westmoreland serves as chief legal counsel for the Suncoast Region of the Florida Department of Children and Families in Tampa but is a registered Levy County voter.
Westmoreland’s entire career as an attorney has been working as legal counsel for DCF starting first as a junior agency attorney in 2001, then senior DCF attorney, a supervising DCF attorney, assistant legal counsel for DCF in Bartow, and finally chief legal counsel for the DCF Suncoast Region from July of 2017 until now.
Inkeles
Doreen T. Inkeles works for Shocet Law Group in Trenton, Fl. and lives in Gainesville. She has moved around the state working for different law firms. She is board-certified in family law – divorces and child custody cases are part of her practice.
She began her career working for the Law Office of David Nevel in Miami Beach 1992-93; She worked for the Law Offices of Minevero Rodriquez 1993-94; She established her own law office, the Law Offices of Doreen Inkeles in Coral Springs 11-94 to 11-08; She worked for Beiner, Inkeles, & Horvitz in Boca Raton 11-08 to 1-17 and the Klein Law Group in Boca Raton 3-17 to 4-18.
Bustamante
Luis E. Bustamante is the only man among the six finalists. He is currently assistant state attorney and Division Chief in Starke, Fl. He has held the prosecutor’s position since 2015.
He established the Law Office of Luis Bustamante in Jacksonville 2014-15; Before that, he was chief assistant state attorney and executive director of the 7th Judicial Circuit in Daytona Beach from 1-2009 to 9-2014; Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor, Office of the Attorney General from 8-1997 to 1-2009; assistant state attorney from 8-1993 to 8-1997 in Daytona Beach.
Torres
Caridad Susana Torres has lived in Gainesville for the past 17 years and operated Torres Law Firm since 2011. She currently represents individuals before U.S. Immigration Courts, removal proceedings, and filing administrative petitions for people requesting lawful permanent residency in the United States and citizenship.
She began her career working as a public defender in Live Oak from July 1996 to August 1998. She worked for Clayton-Johnson PA in Gainesville from 1998-2001; the Law Office of Cary S. Torres March 2001 to December 2007; University of Florida contract attorney December 2007 to March 2011 and operating her own law firm from 2011 to now.
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Enterprise Reporting July 31, 2023; Posted July 31, 2023
