City Court judicial races often don’t generate a ton of interest, but then you don’t often have a former mayor on the ballot who resigned the office as part of a plea deal to a misdemeanor crime.

This year, former Mayor Lovely Warren, who resigned the post in late 2021, is squaring off in the Democratic primary Tuesday against local lawyer Michael Geraci, who is the candidate designated by the Democratic Party.

Geraci, 38, is treating the race as he would regardless of the opposition. He is stressing his experience in both the criminal defense field and the civil litigation arena, where he has worked in labor and tenant representation as well as other areas of civil law. He also worked as an intern in the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.

His experience, Geraci said, aligns with the work in city court, which can range from lower-level crimes to eviction cases.

“They’re all areas where I have experience doing that type of work,” Geraci said.

It is city court, he said, where he thinks judges can have a true impact, partly because of the ample use of diversion courts to try to bring a stability to the lives of defendants. The court does not handle felony-level crimes.

Warren, 46, did not respond to requests via phone and email and through her website for comment. Warren, who has a podcast with City Councilman Willie Lightfoot on WDKX, also did not respond to requests from some other local media for in-depth interviews about her candidacy.

She also did not participate in an evaluation from the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys, and was “not recommended” because of that refusal. Geraci received a “well qualified” rating, the association’s second highest rating.

In social media and statements Warren has said that the majority of defendants in city court are people of color and she understands the impact the system has on families and children. She has acknowledged making mistakes, apparently speaking of her crime, which, through a plea deal to a misdemeanor, allowed her to keep her law license and seek the judgeship.

“I have made my share of mistakes and as part of that there are many things that I regret but all of that has made me a better person, better mom and able to relate to victims and make sure the scales of justice balances for all,” she said in a Facebook post this year.

Because there was a criminal conviction, Warren would likely have had to answer to the region’s legal grievance committee, which can pursue serious sanctions like suspension or loss of law licenses.

However, only the severe punishments become public. The committee can send out private letters of admonition that warn about more serious ramifications if there is subsequent misconduct or law-breaking.

Michael Geraci

Geraci previously ran unsuccessfully for Rochester City Council. His father, Frank Geraci Jr., is now a federal judge who previously served as a county and city court judge as well as a prosecutor and defense lawyer. In his downtown office, Michael Geraci displays a sticker urging a vote for Geraci for Rochester City Court, a remnant from his father’s successful bid in 1991 for the judgeship.

His parents, Michael Geraci said, encouraged his children to follow their own paths.

A 2004 graduate of McQuaid Jesuit High School, Geraci at first considered a career in economics and business before deciding to attend law school. He graduated from University of Dayton School of Law in 2011 and, after the internship in the DA’s office, joined the firm of what is now Trevett, Lenweaver & Salzer, which had a stable of both well-known criminal defense and labor representation lawyers.

Geraci opened his own practice in 2018 and has represented defendants in city court as well as with felony cases in Monroe County Court. Along with Michael Schiano, he defended Kelvin Vickers Jr., who was convicted of the murder of Rochester Police Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz and the wounding of Officer Sino Seng.

Geraci said he has since been approached by police and others in law enforcement who said they were not upset with his defense of Vickers, but instead recognized the legal and constitutional justification for a solid defense for all.

As a volunteer, Geraci has worked and mentored within the Teen Court, which brings teenagers together in a courtroom when accused of low-level offenses. Teenagers adjudicate cases in the program, which is overseen by the Center for Youth, and the recidivism rate is a fraction of adult courts.

“It’s a great example of diversion for first-time nonviolent offenders,” Geraci said.

Diversion programs help “slow the system down” for defendants and “show the person ‘we care about you,’ ” he said.

Lovely Warren

Warren, like Geraci, has her roots in Rochester. A graduate of Wilson Magnet High School, she chose law as a career, securing a law degree from Albany Law School.

Warren has clerked in city court, but entered the political field as a chief of staff to the late Assemblyman David Gantt, who was a power broker in local Democratic circles.

Her work with Gantt and in city neighborhoods led her to a successful Rochester City Council run in 2007 — she later served as president of the council — and her mayoral win in 2013. She was the first woman to serve as mayor and the second Black person to be the city’s mayor.

Through her years as mayor, there were successes with development and neighborhood revitalization, and she built upon a solid core of supporters from both her council work and her years with Gantt. But in 2021 a series of events derailed her political career, at least for then.

One was the death of city man Daniel Prude, who died about a week after being restrained by police. Asphyxiation from that restraint was a cause of death, the medical examiner’s office determined.

The public did not learn of the death until months later, sparking protests and investigations. One internal investigation determined that Warren and others in her administration purposefully hid the facts of the case from the public.

Also that year, she became embroiled in the drug-dealing crimes of her husband, Timothy Granison. Warren said the two were estranged but were sharing a house with their young daughter.

Police raided their home in August 2021 and her husband was arrested. No drugs were found in the home and there has not been evidence that he did sell drugs from the house nor that Warren was involved. He later pleaded guilty to federal drug crimes and, records show, was released from prison this month.

When Granison was arrested, Warren was already under investigation for exceeding campaign limits in her 2017 mayoral campaign. Warren was also criminally charged with Granison; she was accused of illegally possessing a firearm in the house and of endangering her daughter.

In October 2021 she resolved all of the criminal charges with a plea to the misdemeanor campaign finance crime. She agreed to resign as part of the plea deal.

The misdemeanor plea kept her law license intact.

Earlier this year Geraci attempted to have Warren removed from the ballot after her name showed up on petitions for the judgeship and a Democratic committee post. As a judicial candidate, she could not also seek a committee position.

A judge allowed her to stay on the ballot, determining that evidence showed others had put her name on committee petitions without her knowledge.

Geraci said his campaign pursued the litigation because it was important that lawyers and judicial candidates adhere to the law.

Rochester City Court judges serve 10-year terms. The city is largely Democratic and all city court judges are now Democrats.

(Gary Craig is a veteran Democrat and Chronicle reporter who has covered judicial races for the past 20 years.)

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Lovely Warren and Michael Geraci compete for Rochester City Court seat