The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Superior Court Judge Sheree Velita Pitchford, formerly of Somerset and most recently a resident of Dunellen, passed away on March 11. She was 55.
She was a daughter of Jersey City, born at Margaret Hague Hospital and having resided in Jersey City through her college and law school years, and thereafter. She then moved to Somerset, where she lived until she moved to Dunellen 13 years ago.
Judge Pitchford graduated from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, a Dean’s List Student every semester. She then graduated from Seton Hall University Law School in Newark. Thereafter, she was an Assistant Prosecutor in the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, until she became an Assistant Prosecutor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. During her tenure in Middlesex County, she headed a trial team and was considered a highly proficient trial lawyer; she later headed the sex crimes and child abuse unit, directly supervising over 40 individuals, including four assistant prosecutors, and she headed the major crimes and arson unit, having been one of the first, if not the first, African-American females in New Jersey in charge of a major crimes unit in any county. At the end of her prosecutorial career, she headed the pre-trial unit during the implementation of bail reform, where she developed protocols for bail reform which were later adopted state-wide.
Judge Pitchford was designated the Criminal Law Practitioner of the Year in 2015 by the Middlesex County Bar Association.
Judge Pitchford was appointed to the Superior Court of New Jersey on December 17, 2017. She was assigned to Middlesex County in the Civil Part, where in seven months she presided over 27 trials, including two medical malpractice trials. Thereafter, she was assigned to the Family Part. Her last assignment was to the Criminal Part.
Judge Pitchford frequently lectured to various civic organizations. She particularly enjoyed lecturing to children and their parents as part of the Clean Slate Program, a program run by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the police within the county, emphasizing the educational and career blocks that she had overcome. For several years prior to her judicial appointment, she served as a member of the Executive Board of the Metuchen-Edison NAACP.
During vacations, she traveled extensively – Israel, Jordan, Morocco, France, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Panama, Jamaica, Palm Springs, California, and the coast of Maine. She enjoyed a wide variety of music and was probably one of the few Superior Court judges who knew lyrics from rap and hip-hop, as well as rhythm and blues. Her dancing skills were nonpareil.
Judge Pitchford mastered life. Her law clerks, her secretaries, her staff, were devoted to her. Her colleagues recognized her as a true counselor, someone who was always available to offer opinions on an arcane rule of evidence or a procedural question. She had common sense which she exercised with an uncommon intellect. One of her major accomplishments was the establishment of a program called “Courthouse Cares,” which was designed to have court house personnel serve the larger community beyond their work. So, Judge Pitchford could be found, with members of her staff, at Elijah’s Promise soup kitchen in New Brunswick, most Mondays, serving or preparing food for the New Brunswick community.
On February 14, 2023, Judge Pitchford was diagnosed with kidney cancer, which later metastasized throughout her body. Notwithstanding her illness, she maintained a full judicial calendar until early 2025. She was assisted in doing so by a staff and a judicial administration which were markedly loyal to her throughout her illness and provided great comfort to her. She fought against her illness with every fiber of her being. She was an examplar.
Judge Pitchford was predeceased by her father, Steven Wayne Pitchford, and her stepfather, Charles Clark, Jr.
She is survived by her mother, Joyce Pitchford, of Somerset; her husband, Phillip Lewis Paley, a retired Superior Court Judge, of Dunellen; her son, Ralph Steven Rodriguez, of Franklin Park; her stepdaughters, Lizabeth P. Kingsley (with spouse Gretchan Ohlig), of Westfield; and Sharon Ruth H. Razzore (with husband, Ryan Razzore), of Old Bridge; her brother, Charles Clark, III (with spouse Crystal Kong), of Jersey City; two nephews, Christopher Clark and Cameron Clark, of Jersey City, and two step-grandchildren, Alex Harrison Kingsley of Westfield and Derek Bracken Kingsley of New York City.
Private cremation services were held under the professional direction of the Gleason Funeral Home, Somerset. A memorial service will be held at a future date.
Donations in Judge Pitchford’s loving memory can be made to the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital, both of New Brunswick.
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