Judge Belvin Perry
Will he be the next ‘Judge Mathis’?
Throughout the media circus that surrounded the murder trial of Casey Anthony, Judge Belvin Perry is the one person that many claim brought dignity to the proceedings. Now, the Tuskegee University grad is thought of as a star in the legal field.
Several gossip websites are reporting that Perry is in line for his own TV court show in the mold of “Judge Mathis,” a reality show broadcast nationally.
“He’s been on the bench since the late 80’s and has presided over several high profile cases so his résumé is TV cred-ready,” “Cult of Celebrity” author, Cooper Lawrence told PopEater.com of Perry. “But the real draw is that he doesn’t like shenanigans going on in his courtroom, like when he let [lead defense attorney Anthony] Baez have it with, ‘We’re not stopping anymore for you to get a file!'”
Perry was praised for how he handled many things in the case, including the attorneys, whose bickering in the closing arguments caused him to clear the courtroom.
When the recess was concluded, reports say Perry told the attorneys; “if it happens again, the remedy will be exclusion of that attorney from further representation at these proceedings. Enough is enough.”
Perry, who got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tuskegee, has the distinction of being one of Orlando’s first Black police officers. Perry resigned from the police force in 1976 and a year later obtained his law degree from Texas Southern University.
In 1989, Perry was named Circuit Judge in Osceola County, Fla. and was elevated to Administrative Circuit Court Judge two years later. In 1992, he became Circuit Judge for Orange County, Florida’s criminal court and served in that position for three years. Since 1995, Perry has been the chief judge for Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Osceola and Orange counties, except for two years between 1999-2001 when he was Circuit Judge in Orange County.
Perry currently is a member of the Texas, Florida, and Orange County Bar Associations as well as a member of the Trial Court Budget Commission.
