• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

On an Unsettled Day, Judge Dawn Nichols Brings Order to Court as She Begins Post-Perkins Tenure

October 7, 2024 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols got immediately to work, as if she'd been doing the job for years--which, of course, she has: she's been on the bench for 10 years, but in Volusia County. Now she's Flagler County's felony judge. (© FlaglerLive)
Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols got immediately to work, as if she’d been doing the job for years–which, of course, she has: she’s been on the bench for 10 years, but in Volusia County. Now she’s Flagler County’s felony judge. (© FlaglerLive)

A week after Terence Perkins’s retirement, Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols walked into court at 1:35 this afternoon, wished the lawyers, a half dozen inmates inmates and a dozen people in the gallery a good afternoon, and got to work with pleas, a couple of sentencing hearings, bond and status hearings with workmanlike cheer and speed just shy of breathless.

So went the judge’s first appearance in a courtroom that for the previous six years had been Perkins’s domain, on an afternoon when the rest of the county was bracing for Hurricane Milton and the courthouse itself was preparing to shut down Wednesday and Thursday.




There was nothing remarkable about this first day other than the change of face and pace and the subtle ways Nichols immediately put her stamp a way of going through the docket without upsetting norms that had preceded her. “I know you all usually call the docket, but what I usually would like to do is we have a sign up list, because I’d like to know,” she said, “who’s ready to go.” She certainly was–with no letup between cases except to give her time to sign documents and read the notes about some of the cases she’s inherited from Perkins. Copious notes, in some cases.

Her first case took all of two minutes: Cory Waring pleaded to violating his probation he was serving for a couple of drug charges and driving on a suspended license, which reinstated his probation. Then it was Evan St Pierre’s turn for a plea on two drug charges of his own, resolved with a pretrial diversionary program that, if St. Pierre abides by, will result in the charges being dropped. That took three minutes.

“Welcome to Flagler County,” attorney Josh Davis, who was representing St. Pierre, told Nichols when he was done.




“Yeah, I practiced here for 20 years, this was a long time ago,” Nichols said, a surprise to most. “I won’t say how long ago. But you’re right. Flagler’s a great place to be. I’m happy to be here.” Gov. Rick Scott appointed Nichols to the bench 10 years ago in place of Hubert L. Grimes , who had been Volusia County’s first Black judge. Just last week she was presiding over somewhat of a high profile trial in Volusia County–that of Devin Perkins, 24, who was found guilty of three counts of vehicular homicide as he drove drunk at 100 miles per hour and crashed into a pickup truck in Dec. 2022. Three passengers in his car were killed: Kyle Jacob Moser, 25, of Daytona Beach, Ava Fellerman, 20, of Treasure Island, Alexandra Dulin, a 21-year-old TikTok personality known as Ali Spice. Perkins is awaiting sentencing.

Nothing remotely that grave occupied today’s docket for Nichols, though she sentenced two people in separate cases to significant prison sentences: James Michaels, a 35-year-old former resident of Casper Drive in Palm Coast, was sentenced to seven and a half years in state prison for burgling a house and car in Flagler Beach last December. Andy Hicks, 49, got seven years for a half dozen drug and drug-related charges. Someone in the gallery among a group of three people quietly cried as Hicks was ushered to the fingerprinting station before being escorted out of the courtroom. “Good luck to you Mr. Hicks,” the judge had told him, as she had Michaels.

The judge immediately established an easy rapport with the defendants. In one case, she asked a 64-year-old defendant if he had any mental health issues. It’s part of the normal plea colloquy. The defendant said he did not. “A little bit?” she asked him. He prevaricated. “I think I’m going to go with a yes,” she told him, before establishing whether that stopped him from understanding her at all. It did not. “That’s why I asked the question,” she told him. He was placed on 48 months’ probation for a felony battery charge (he’d attacked his roommate of four years while drunk. It was his third such offense since 1992).




But she had a gift for him: “I’m going to waive the cost of probation supervision, just because you have a lot of things here, a lot of tasks to do,” Nichols told the defendant, “and I want to make sure you’re successful. Okay? And you know your maximum exposure, if you went to trial in this case and lost, would be up to five years in state prison.” She wished him good luck.

In another case, one of several bond hearings, she found Nafissah Exantus’s story about needing to go to Haiti to get the money she owes in restitution not credible. She owes $2,000 to her ex-husband after demolishing some of his property. She’s owed the money since March but never made a payment, and has already traveled to Haiti once. “I’m sorry, I’m not buying it,” the judge said, denying her motion to travel.

In a different case, the judge found the bond on Kevin Cichowski–a man who’d briefly announced a run for Palm Coast mayor in 2021 then retracted it–too onerous. Cichowski, 44, faces two felony charges of domestic violence against his wife, who has since left the state for South Carolina, he told the court. His bond was set at $130,000. Nichols had no problem with the no-contact order. But she found the bond amount “really high for somebody who has no prior history and is 45 years old.” She set bond at $7,500.

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Celia Pugliese says

    October 7, 2024 at 7:23 pm

    Happy and safe retirement to judge Perkins! Welcome Judge Nichols!

    Loading...
    1
  2. Valerie Nelson says

    December 14, 2024 at 12:14 pm

    Judge Nichols doesn’t seem much better than Perkins. Looking at her record, she tends to give a slap on the wrist to battery and physical violence against others…yet extremely rigid on drug charges, with a large amount of those charges being self inflicted damages due to drugs. Now she is the judge who makes preliminary decisions on injuction requests…so the same judge who goes easy on violence against others is making decisions on who does and doesn’t get a right to a temporary injuction and hearing?! This is problematic to say the least. My teenage son who was a victim of domestic violence when his now ex girlfriend hit him causing a one inch gash over his eyelid and her family threatened him with physical violence if he told anyone, and was denied an injunction. He’s black, ex girlfriend is white. Not sure if that played a part in her decision. She literally made her decision in less than 30 minutes, even with the charging affidavit and photos attached. I now have no other way to protect my minor aged teenage son from these monsters. Not sure where her “judgement” is coming from, but having to live in fear everyday causes us to no longer have faith in Flagler County Courts.

    Loading...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Dan Beasley on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • DeDe on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
  • Diana L on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • Deborah Coffey on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • Thomas E. on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
  • Jim Hood on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
  • Diane E. on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
  • Thomas Doubting on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 14, 2025
  • Deborah Coffey on DeSantis Signs Warrant for Eighth Execution of the Year
  • Deborah Coffey on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
  • Jay Gardner on Daytona State College Keeps Tuition and Fee Rates Flat for 15th Consecutive Year
  • LoveMyCountry on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • diane on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 14, 2025
  • Come on Now on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • Ultra MAGA on Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
  • Marek on Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy

Log in

%d