Camara Banfield was sworn in Friday as Clark County Superior Court’s newest judge, a first for a woman of color in Clark County.
Among those in attendance over Zoom for Banfield’s investiture ceremony at the Clark County Courthouse were municipal judges, county prosecutors and two Washington State Supreme Court justices.
In the courtroom were Banfield’s family and friends. After reciting her oath to the court, her two children and husband helped to put on her new black robe.
“I vow to uphold the law. I vow to be just. I vow to never forget my life experiences, because those are the experiences of people who will come before me,” Banfield said.
Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Banfield as the county’s next Superior Court judge in January. There were nine candidates for the position.
She is replacing Clark County Superior Court Judge Bernard Veljacic, who was recently appointed to the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II.
State Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, who met Banfield at a Washington Leadership Institute conference, explained the difficulties of judgeship and informed Banfield that her decisions would now more than ever impact people’s lives.
“Why am I mentioning the gravity of the job? Because Gov. Inslee made the right choice. There could not have been a better selection,” Yu said.
Since 2004, Banfield had served as a criminal prosecutor with the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. She most recently was serving as the office’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor. In that role she supervised the division, managed its budget and shaped the office’s policies and procedures around such prosecutions.
She co-founded the Action Reform Committee last year to review and put in place reforms at the prosecutor’s office. The committee’s efforts aim to confront long-standing racial inequities in the criminal justice system.
Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik said the committee’s work includes increased efforts to incentivize defendants to participate in mental health and drug courts, posting the office’s policies on the internet for the public to view and examining the office’s hiring policies.
At the ceremony, Golik provided a snapshot of his colleague’s life and her ascension to the bench.
Born and raised in Clark County, Banfield graduated from Mountain View High School in 1990. She attended the University of Oregon on a sports scholarship, pursuing her then-dream career of becoming a U.S. diplomat. Her strengths as a sprinter led to a gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics in 1995, and then she moved to Florida to pursue an athletic career but was sought out and swayed to enroll in law school. She eventually made her way home, and worked her way up to a job at the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Golik said he was thankful she committed herself to her hometown.
“She is one of the smartest and most talented lawyers I’ve met in my life. She has an incredible ability to be empathetic and care about people. … She will work tirelessly to make our entire community thrive,” Golik said.
