Judge Fernando Camacho

Judge Fernando Camacho obtained his undergraduate degree from Columbia College and attended Fordham Law School. In 1985 he joined the Manhattan District Attorney's Office where he worked in the Trial Division, the Sex Crimes Unit and the Homicide Unit. In 1991he was assigned to the Homicide Investigation Unit, a joint state and federal task force, where he directed long term investigations and prosecutions of violent gangs.

In 1997 he became a New York City Criminal Court Judge in Brooklyn. In 2002 he was appointed Deputy Supervising Judge and presided over the Queens County Domestic Violence Court. In 2003 he created a treatment court for individuals arrested for prostitution with a mission stop the incarceration and re-victimization of trafficking victims in the criminal justice system. That was the spark that led to the creation of the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts which now exist throughout New York State.

In 2008 he was appointed to the New York State Court of Claims and served as an Acting Supreme Court Justice in the Integrated Domestic Violence Court in Queens County. In 2009 he became County Administrative Judge and created the Queens County Youth Diversion Part, a specialized treatment court for adolescents charged with felony offenses.

In January 2013 he was assigned to Suffolk County Supreme Court where he created the Felony Youth Part which provides alternatives to incarceration for young people charged with felonies. In January 2021 he started the Suffolk County CONCEPTS Court which provides alternatives to residential placement for minors charged as Juvenile Delinquents in Family Court. In 2003 he created the ERIN Court, the first specialized court in New York State to provide support and services for sexually exploited youth, many of them in foster care, who have cases pending in Family Court.

For the last twenty-two years Judge Camacho has advocated for measures to protect and provide support for victims of sexual exploitation. He has been a speaker at numerous state and national anti-trafficking conferences and training seminars on the topics of human trafficking, sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of youth.