Magistrate Judge to Retire After 25 Years of Service

From CT Courts: Chief United States District Judge Stefan R. Underhill has announced the retirement of United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez, who sits in Hartford, effective October 4, 2019.

Judge Martinez was appointed to the federal bench on February 8, 1994. Prior to her appointment, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. She joined the office in 1980, representing the government in all types of civil and criminal litigation for almost 15 years. When she left in 1994, Judge Martinez was serving as the United States Attorney’s Chief of the Organized Crime/Drug Enforcement Task Force. Prior to that, she worked as an Assistant Corporation Counsel at City Hall in Hartford. Judge Martinez received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 1973, a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work in 1975, and a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1978.

Judge Martinez has taught at the U.S. Department of Justice Advocacy Institute and at Yale Law School. She is a longtime member of the Oliver Ellsworth Chapter of the American Inns of Court and has served two terms as president. Magistrate Judges are federal trial court judges who are appointed to the court for eight-year terms. Judge Martinez is in her third eight-year term.

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