Smt. Raja Rajeswari
Judge in New York
Raja Rajeswari was born in Chennai in Southern Indian. She followed in the footsteps of her mother “Sudarkodi” Padma Ramanathan, who was a famous dancer and the director of a successful cultural institution entitled “Padmalaya Dance Academy”. She started performing at the age of three and graduated in Bharatha Natyam style of dance at the age of five. She started teaching classical dance when she was ten years old. When she was fourteen years old, she received a Government of India research scholarship and conducted advanced studies in Kalakshetra style of Bharatha Natyam where she learned the Kuchipudi style of dance.
Ms. Rajeswari traveled extensively with her mother and her dance troupe to several countries representing india as a cultural delegate. when she was fourteen, she was honored by the President of India, R. Venkataraman and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In 1988, when she was sixteen years old, she was selected to travel to Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad to commemorate a 150 years of Indian migration to the West Indies with Vice President Shankar Dayal Sharma. The final performance of that trip was conducted in New York City where she ended up continuing her education.
Ms. Rajeswari was awarded the Belle Zeller Merit Scholarship in November of 1992 by the city University of New York for academic excellence, meritorious achievement and community service. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the college of Staten Island, with a Bachelor in Science degree in 1994. She graduated with honors from Brooklyn Law School with a law degree in 1998. She was twice honored with the women in History Award, in 2002 from Assemblyman Robert Straniere, and again in 2013 by Council woman Debi Rose. These awards were for her legal and cultural contributions to the Staten Island community.
Ms. Rajeswari chose a career in public service and joined the Richmond Country District Attorney’s Office in 1998, where she served for over sixteen years in various bureaus including the Criminal Court Bureau, the Narcotics Bureau, the Supreme Court Bureau, and in the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau. Her dedication, compassion and strong work ethic resulted in various supervisory and mentoring positions as she served as the senior Trial counsel for the Supreme Court Bureau and the Deputy Bureau Chief of the Sex Crime Special Victims Bureau. She is a talented trial litigator and has won numerous trial convictions for various violent offenses which include murder, robbery, burglary, narcotics and weapons possessions cases. She is multi-lingual and credits her language skills, her sensitivity and her cultural background with affording her the ability to communicate and convince numerous victims of varied ethnic backgrounds to cooperate in domestic violence and sexual assault cases. She was able to reach dozens of women from all religions and backgrounds from Asia, Africa and Latin America, and encouraged them to stand up for themselves and become educated about the plethora of resources that are available to them through our legal system. She is a firm believer that the criminal justice system, while imperfect, is nevertheless the best legal system in the world as it affords every person, regardless of their sex, race, color, sexual orientation or social standing, an opportunity to seek justice.
Judge Rajeswari made history when she was sworn in by Mayor Bill de Blasio in April of 2015. She is the first South Asian Woman to become a Judge in New York and the first Indian – American women to be appointed to Criminal Court in the history of New York. Judge Rajeshwari is Immensely grateful to Mayor de Blasio who kept his promise and promoted diversity among the Judiciary and encouraging immigrants to dream big by giving them an opportunity to achieve their dreams as well as serve their community. She would like to improve language interpreter services in the court system for immigrants and provide more access to services for women and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Judge Rajeswari is honored to serve on the Advisory Committee on court interpreting for the office of Court Administration and is the Chair person of the Subcommittee on Courthouse environment. She understands the special challenges faced by individuals with limited English proficiency and wants to provide a better court environments for thousands of immigrants who participate in our judicial system regardless of the language they speak. She has dedicated her entire legal career to this worthy cause and will strive to keep fighting to be a voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves.