Washington, DC (Aug. 8, 2023) – Four individuals were elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s annual meeting in Chicago. The Board Members below join those who are currently serving their terms on the NACDL Board of Directors.
Jude Michael Faccidomo – Miami, FL
Jude is a former Assistant Public Defender with the Miami-Dade Public Defender's office and has extensive trial experience handling cases stemming from DUI to first degree murder. While at the Public Defender’s Office, Jude was recruited to join the firm of Jeffrey S. Weiner, P.A. where he spent five years handling high-profile and complex criminal litigation. In 2013, Jude and Mycki Ratzan partnered to create Ratzan & Faccidomo- a boutique law firm that quickly became one of the most prominent criminal defense law firms in the tri-county area of South Florida. In May of 2012 Jude was elected President of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL), at the time making him that organization’s youngest president in its history. Jude is a past chair of the Dade County Bar Association’s Criminal Court Committee and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Miami-Dade Jury Trial Task Force, where he works with the circuit’s Chief Judge to facilitate jury trials amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. Jude is the Immediate Past President of FACDL. In addition to his involvement in FACDL, Jude is a member of the Dade County Bar Association, the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, and a Fellow with the American Bar Foundation. Jude is past Vice Chair of the Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, and currently serves on the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration. Jude is also the past Chair of the Florida Bar Grievance Committee 11-H and is currently a member of the Board of Advisors for St. Thomas University School of Law. Jude has been invited to guest lecture on topics pertaining to criminal defense at Florida Bar’s Advanced Federal Practice, the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Police Institute, as well as St. Thomas University School of Law. Additionally, Jude is routinely asked by local and national news media to discuss high-profile criminal defense cases. Jude has been consistently named to the Superlawyers, Florida Legal Elite, Best Lawyers, and Florida Legal Trend. Jude is a two-time recipient of the FACDL President’s Award for personifying the spirit of the criminal defense lawyer and is the recipient of the Miami Bar Association’s Sookie Williams Outstanding Community Service Award. Jude has also been awarded the Gideon’s Hammer award for outstanding service in the field of Criminal Defense as well as the Gregg Wenzel Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. Jude was elected to serve on the Board of Directors by the NACDL Affiliates.
Melanie Foote – Frankfort, KY
Melanie Foote is the Manager of the Education and Strategic Planning Branch for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Melanie joined the Education Branch in 2015. She is a member of the New York and Kentucky State Bars, and has been practicing in Kentucky since she joined the Adult Post-Conviction Branch of the Department of Public Advocacy in 2007. While in the Post-Conviction Branch, Melanie represented adult clients on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, mistake in the proceedings, and claims of actual innocence. In that role, she secured the release and exoneration of Mr. Jason Girts, who had been wrongfully convicted based on false statements made by a child relative. In 2009, she joined the Kentucky Innocence Project to work exclusively on DNA-based claims of actual innocence. At the completion of the DNA Grant in 2010, she began representing clients in district, circuit, juvenile and family court in the Elizabethtown and LaGrange Trial Offices. While at the Elizabeth Trial Office, Melanie had the pleasure of representing Mr. Jose Padilla, after his case was vacated and remanded by the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Padilla’s charges were ultimately dismissed after a period of deferred prosecution, allowing him to remain in the United States. Melanie is a faculty member of the 2017 Public Defender Trial Advocacy Program in Dayton, Ohio. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego and her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Lonnie Randolph – East Chicago, IN
Lonnie M. Randolph II is a rising star in the criminal defense world. Lonnie, a former semi-professional basketball player, is a founding partner and the managing partner at Randolph & Randolph, P.C. in northwest Indiana and Chicago. He is also a public defender in Lake County, Indiana with the Lake County Public Defender’s Office and is licensed to practice law in Indiana, Illinois, and the federal courts in each state. Lonnie is an experienced criminal defense attorney who has had remarkable success in the courtroom. He handles a variety of criminal cases, including felony and misdemeanor cases in both state and federal courts. For example, he has successfully defended criminal cases ranging from murder, drug dealing, conspiracy cases, criminal gang activity, firearms offenses, sex offenses, DUI, battery, fraud, traffic matters, and other complex and high-profile criminal cases. Outside of his NACDL membership, he is a member of the following organizations: National Bar Association; Indiana State Bar Association; Illinois State Bar Association; Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Indiana Trial Lawyers Association; Lake County Bar Association; and is also a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Lonnie received his law degree from Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2013. There, he was president of the Student Bar Association, an Associate Justice on the Moot Court Board, a barrister on the Moot Court Society’s Order of the Barristers, a certified legal intern for the Criminal Defense Clinic, and a fellow with the Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity (ICLEO). He regularly speaks at churches, schools, basketball camps, and other inner-city organizations. He constantly talks to minors and adults about their constitutional rights, statutory law, interacting with law enforcement, cleaning up their driving records, expungements, and many other legal areas of concern in his community.
Carrie L. Thompson – Colorado Springs, CO
Carrie Lynn Thompson retired from the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office in December 2014 and is currently a sole practitioner. Ms. Thompson was the Managing Deputy State Public Defender for the Colorado Springs Office of the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office from March 2006 through December 2014, managing and training a staff of 89 people. She began her public defender career in 1987 in the Arapahoe County Office, where she practiced for almost eight years. She was then assigned to the Denver County Office for ten years, where she served as Division Lead, supervising a division of felony lawyers, handling a felony caseload, and coordinating the in-house training. Over her career, Ms. Thompson has lectured and provided training extensively on numerous topics in the field of criminal defense in Colorado and nationally, including a series of lectures on representing clients in high-profile cases entitled, “Representing the Monsters – Taking the Jurors from Fears to Tears.” Ms. Thompson received the David F. Vela Award in 1997 for her extraordinary dedication to the ideals of the Colorado Public Defender System and she was named the Colorado State Public Defender Attorney of the Year in 2002. In 2012, she was recognized by the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation, honoring the “Second Wave,” the second generation of women attorneys who continue to “raise the bar” after the first generation of women trailblazers. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar’s Jonathan Olom Award “for exceptional service and sacrifice made without regard for personal gain in the defense of the accused.” She has served on numerous local and state-level criminal justice committees, including the State Judicial Advisory Counsel and the State Jury Reform Committee, and served as a member of the Community Corrections Board for El Paso and Teller Counties from 2006 through 2014. Ms. Thompson served as the President of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar in 2003-2004. After leaving the Public Defender’s Office, she served as the Legislative Policy Coordinator for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar in 2016-2018. She most recently served as the lead lawyer in a double murder case that began as a capital case, was tried to a jury during the pandemic, and was resolved by way of a favorable plea disposition after the jury hung 11-1 for acquittal. Thompson was elected to serve on the Board of Directors by the NACDL Affiliates.
Contacts
Kate Holden, NACDL Public Affairs and Communications Associate, (202) 465-7624 or kholden@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.