Submitted Photo: Judge John Kuzdale (right) with his mother Evelyn at Dunkirk’s Memorial Park on the 100th anniversary of WWI. Judge Kuzdale’s maternal and paternal grandfathers were both Navy veterans and are listed on Dunkirk’s monument to WWI.

Judge John Kuzdale is running for the full-time Dunkirk City Court position.

He has 25 years of service with the Dunkirk City Court, where he currently sits as the part-time judge.

Endorsed by the Democratic Party last April, Judge Kuzdale is also running on the Republican, Independence, Conservative and Working Families lines in the Sept. 12 primary.

His many years on the bench make Judge Kuzdale by far the most qualified candidate and the only one with judicial experience.

Judge Kuzdale’s family has deep roots in Dunkirk. His ancestors came to Dunkirk in the 1870s, his father Edwin J. Kuzdale, Esq., a former city attorney and county attorney, practiced law in Dunkirk for some 55 years. Judge Kuzdale himself has practiced law here for 33 years.

Appointed and re-appointed judge by four Democrat and Republication mayors more than two decades, Judge Kuzdale has also been trained by the state Court Administration and the New York Judicial Institute. Throughout his tenure as a judge, he has presided over numerous criminal and civil trials and felony hearings. He has worked with the Regional Drug Task Force and local law enforcement agencies overseeing the issuance of search and arrest warrants and arraignments. His judicial responsibilities have required a first-hand knowledge of New York’s prison system from juvenile detention facilities to maximum-security prisons, such as Sing Sing and Rikers Island. He has served as the Dunkirk drug treatment judge and was recently assigned to cover the Jamestown City Court.

Judge Kuzdale has a very broad legal background, including: felony and misdemeanor defense, civil litigation, municipal and education law, commercial real estate development, residential real estate, estate matters, small business development and environmental litigation. He has represented major banks including Bank of America, PNC and Fleet. A past president of the Bar Association of Northern Chautauqua and a member of the Erie County Bar Association, Judge Kuzdale received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Fordham University and his Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law in New York City.

His extensive legal and judicial background and specialized knowledge of the Dunkirk City Court compel Judge Kuzdale to serve as the full-time city court judge.

Judge Kuzdale said, “For me, it is a humbling honor, but most importantly, a duty, to serve the community which my family has been part of for generations. The residents of our area need, and deserve, an experienced City Court Judge.”

Judge Kuzdale’s special passion is history. He has an unparalleled expertise in Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s Lake Erie Campaign of 1813. He has been published in the Buffalo News, produced a documentary about Dunkirk and is a contributor to a local book honoring veterans, “No One Forgets.”