TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Order In The Courtroom

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Judge Angela Cowden was appointed this past June to the circuit bench after over five years as a Polk County judge.

ADVERTISEMENT

By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: August 11, 2008

SEBRING - At 41, Angela Jane Cowden is already starting her third career.

"I was a chemist," says Cowden. She was a researcher who studied polymers, until the company she worked for changed hands.

So she went to law school, combined her chemistry skills with a minor in math and an MBA, and got a job as a prosecutor.

Nine years later, Cowden was appointed to the county bench by Gov. Jeb Bush, and on June 1 she was chosen by Gov. Charlie Crist to the circuit court.

Today, she's the new family court judge in Highlands County.

Church And Work

Cowden's personal life centers around her work in Highlands County and her church in Lakeland.

Her favorite song is "Blessed Assurance," by Fanny Crosby. Wednesdays and Sundays find her at worship. She plays piano in her father's Winter Haven church, Hope Baptist. Her favorite book is the Bible. Her favorite author is Ayn Rand.

But her eyes brighten when she's chatting about Jane Austen. She's well versed on "Pride and Prejudice," both the novel and the decades of movies.

Hoops & YoYo and Curious George bring out the inner child in this only child, who, at 41, has never been married and has no children.

Her high school was Temple Christian in Lakeland, but she left without graduating to attend Florida Southern College, where she majored in chemistry and minored in math and German. She took a master's in business in 1986 and an MBA in 1989.

But at age 23, she was unhappy. She got a job as a research chemist, winding up far from home in Columbus, Ohio. "The company I worked for was bought and sold, bought and sold." It went to the Japanese, the Germans; eventually, it was owned by Schering-Plough, the worldwide, research-based pharmaceutical company.

"Where is this going?" she asked herself. So she called home and asked for advice for her father, who is also a chemist. Her background, he suggested, was fine for law.

A Legal Twist

"I don't know what possessed me," Cowden laughed. But she took the Law School Admission Test, and scored highly. Three years later, she was offered a job that combined her business, chemistry and legal background, prosecuting economic and environmental crimes in Florida's 10th Judicial District.

"Everything kind of came together," Cowden said.

Now, everything is coming together for the new job, which she enjoys.

There's a rotation among 10th District judges, and the Highlands County family court is usually a one-year stop. Luckily, she didn't have to commute back and forth to Lakeland. A family member offered the use of his condo outside Lake Placid. That allows her to stay late and read the files of cases which will appear before her.

"It is not just advocating for one side or another," Cowden said. "The legislature may change the law. You have to be able to adapt to that change, to put aside your personal beliefs, to be able to apply a set of facts to the law."

Cowden's new job is to decide on marriages, divorces, child custody, adoptions, paternity, and child support. With that comes domestic violence and dating violence.

"The kinds of work in family law are the most charged cases," said Cowden. "Sexual violence is probably one of the worst ones."

But she wants people to know that judges - "At least the judges I know, are the hardest-working, most sincere, most fair-minded people that could be on the bench."

The job of the judge is not just to conduct hearings.

"People want to know that someone listened to them," she said. "Maybe the decision was not what they were hoping for. But at least someone heard them out."

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT