by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
When County Court Judge Mallory Cooper picked up the phone last Friday, it was Gov. Jeb Bush calling.
“Merry Christmas,” said Bush. “Would you like a promotion?”
Selected from a field of six candidates, Cooper has been appointed to the Fourth Judicial Circuit, filling the vacancy created during the 2005 legislative session. She will hear criminal felony cases, an area she said will be very different from the cases she has heard as a county judge since 1996.
“The county judges handle the whole case load. We handle county criminal, small claims, landlord/tenant and traffic court. This will be a little different, handling the same thing every day. I was a prosecutor for almost 10 years, so the criminal system is the most familiar to me,” she said.
Cooper also said she believes she is the first daughter of a circuit court judge to become a circuit court judge, following her father William Durden, who served from 1960-68.