Retired longtime Third Circuit Court Judge Dalton A. Roberson Sr., passed away on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. He was 83 and had recently been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Roberson was born in Mount Vernon, Alabama on May 11, 1937. After graduating from Mobile Training School in Mobile, Alabama, he moved to Detroit to seek work. He served as a boom operator in the United States Air Force, and after he was honorably discharged, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, where he became of member of the Delta Pi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. After a stint with the Michigan Department of Social Services, he earned a law degree from what was then known as Detroit College of Law in 1967. That same year, he married Pearl Janet Stephens.
After law school, he served as an Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor and Assistant
U.S. Attorney before founding a law firm with Robert Harrison and Bernard Friedman. From 1972 until 1974, he served as a member of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and the Sentencing Community Alternative Commission.
He was appointed to what was then known as Detroit Recorder’s Court by Governor William Milliken in 1974, replacing Judge John R. Murphy, who had died in a plane crash. In 1987, he was elected chief judge of the court. During his tenure as chief judge, the court decided high profile cases such as the Malice Green murder case. In 1992, the National Conference of Black Lawyers named him its Judge of the Year.
After he retried in 1999, he and his wife move to Diamondhead, Mississippi, where he indulged his passion for golf. The couple returned to Detroit in 2013. Mrs. Roberson passed away in 2018.
In recent years, he served as a visiting judge for the Third Circuit Court.
He is survived by his daughter, Portia Roberson; son Dalton A. Roberson, Jr.; daughter-
in-law, Jakeema Roberson, and granddaughters, Avery and Harper Roberson.
