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NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County Judge Debra Roberts will seek election to the bench this fall. Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Roberts in November 2001 to take over the newly created county judge position. She was the first African-American to become a judge in Pasco County.
Since February 2002, when Roberts took the bench, she has presided over mostly criminal misdemeanor cases. She temporarily took over for former Circuit Judge Craig Villanti when he was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeals.
Roberts, 50, was raised in Sanford and attended segregated schools through the 11th grade. She attended Seminole Community College and the University of Central Florida. Roberts received a master's degree in social work from Florida State University and worked as a counselor in a mental health clinic and for a federal program charged with lowering infant mortality rates.
She then enrolled in FSU's College of Law, graduating in 1985.
Since then, she has served as an attorney with the Department of Business Regulation, a staff attorney for the Florida Supreme Court and as the court counsel for the 6th Judicial Circuit.