The Hon. Joseph A. Zayas is a justice for the Queens County Supreme Court (Criminal Term) in the Eleventh Judicial District of New York. Zayas was elected to the bench in 2017.
Zayas began his judicial career as a judge for the Criminal Court of the City of New York in Queens County, a position to which he was appointed by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2003 and 2010. Then, in 2012, he was selected by Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as a judge for the New York State Court of Claims. While presiding in these capacities, Zayas was designated acting justice of the Queens County Supreme Court by Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau (2010) and Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti (2012).
In 2013, Zayas became the Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters of the Eleventh Judicial District.
Zayas earned a B.A. from the College at Lincoln Center of Fordham University in 1985. Then, in 1988, he completed a J.D. at Columbia Law School.
After graduating from law school, Zayas became a staff attorney for the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society in 1988. During his tenure there, he rose through the ranks, becoming senior staff attorney for its Criminal Defense Division (1991), its Criminal Appeals Bureau (1993), and its Capital Defense Unit (1996). Zayas then joined the New York State Unified Court System in 1998. During his five-year tenure there, he served as a principal court attorney for the Hon. Rolando T. Acosta of the Queens County Supreme Court.
His memberships have included the New York State Permanent Commission on Sentencing, the Committee on the Future of Criminal Indigent Defense Services, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County, the National Hispanic Bar Association, and the Queens County Bar Association. He has also been a member of the Cervantes Society and a secretary for the Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage.
Zayas’s family immigrated to the United States from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico in the 1950s. They settled in the Frederick Douglas Houses in Upper Manhattan.