Family Court of the District of Columbia Superior Court

Judges' Bios

Chief Judge Milton C. Lee | Judge Darlene Soltys |Judge Kelly Higashi | Judge Sherri Beatty-Arthur

Speaker Bios

Michelle Booth Cole, JD | Tiffany M. Henderson| Rashida Prioleau| Kathryn Rifenbark | Sheryldine Samuel, MPH

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The Honorable Chief Judge Milton C. Lee was appointed to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 2010 by President Barack Obama. On July 26, 2024, the District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Commission designated Judge Lee as Chief Judge of the Superior Court. Judge Lee begins his four-year term as Chief Judge of the Court on October 1, 2024. Judge Lee is a native of the District of Columbia. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the American University School of Justice in 1982. He obtained his Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Following law school, Judge Lee joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service as a staff attorney. He served as a trial attorney for many years, representing indigent persons in the Family, Misdemeanor, and Felony Divisions of the Superior Court. He also argued several appellate cases before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Judge Lee joined the District of Columbia Superior Court as a Magistrate Judge in November 1998. Since his appointment, Judge Lee has served in the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the Court and the Family Court. He served as the presiding magistrate judge from 2006 until his nomination. Judge Lee has remained active in both the legal and academic communities. He has continued serving the law school community as an adjunct faculty member and, in 1995, published an article analyzing the recent amendments to the Court’s juvenile detention statute. Judge Lee and the members of the Juvenile Law Clinic published a manual for practitioners in the area of special education advocacy. Judge Lee later authored an article entitled “What Truth Do We Seek?” supporting greater discovery in criminal cases. After serving on the Superior Court Task Force for Families and Violence, Judge Lee assisted in developing the Teen Court Diversion Program. In addition, Judge Lee has consistently contributed to the Criminal Practice Institute, Neglect Practice Institute, and many other local bar programs. He has also taught in the Harvard Trial Advocacy Program for several years. Recently, Judge Lee spearheaded the development of the District of Columbia Superior Court’s Fathering Court. The initiative represents a partnership between the Court, several governmental agencies, and the private sector that is directed toward creating opportunities for noncustodial parents to become meaningful contributors to the development of their children. The initiative has worked with many reentry parents by providing employment, educational training, parenting training and support groups, and wrap-around services for the entire family. The Fathering Court Initiative has garnered national recognition for its innovative problem-solving approach to reunited families.

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The Honorable Darlene Soltys was nominated in July 2015 by President Barack Obama for appointment to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Senate confirmed her nomination as Associate Judge on December 17, 2015. Judge Soltys grew up in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, majoring in Political Science and History, and received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center (GULC). At GULC, she participated in the Criminal Justice Clinic, representing indigent people charged in the Superior Court. Judge Soltys served as the first law clerk to the Honorable Gregory E. Mize. She worked for the then-Office of Corporation Counsel, trying cases against juvenile respondents. Judge Soltys served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Prince Georges County, Maryland, in the Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Section and later in the Homicide Section. In 2004, Judge Soltys joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. During her tenure there, Judge Soltys served primarily in the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Trafficking Section of the Criminal Division, trying cases in federal District Court. Judge Soltys participated in long[1] term investigations using wiretap authorizations and other forms of electronic surveillance to infiltrate violent gangs and drug trafficking organizations alongside members of the FBI/MPD Safe Streets Task Force. Judge Soltys is a recipient of the Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney. She was named Senior Litigation Counsel in 2013 and received numerous special achievement awards from USAO-DC. Judge Soltys also collaborated with visiting foreign prosecutors and jurists and lectured at area law schools on gang prosecutions and electronic surveillance. Her first judicial assignment was in the Probate/Tax Division. Since 2019, she has served in Family Court, first in the Domestic Relations Branch handling divorce and custody cases, and now as Deputy Presiding Judge.

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The Honorable Kelly A. Higashi was nominated by President Trump to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on February 5, 2018. Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 12, 2018. Judge Higashi was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Pennsylvania and her Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University School of Law. After law school, Judge Higashi served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Frederick H. Weisberg of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1992 to 1994. In September 1994, Judge Higashi was sworn in as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where she served for twenty four years until her appointment to the Superior Court bench. For the last fifteen of those years, Judge Higashi served as the Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section. In that capacity, Judge Higashi led a section of thirty eight prosecutors who specialized in the prosecution, in both the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of sexual assaults, domestic violence, child abuse, stalking, human trafficking, online child exploitation, and sex offender registration offenses. Prior to that, Judge Higashi served as the Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Misdemeanor Trial Section. In that capacity, she was instrumental in the creation of several diversion programs for misdemeanor defendants, such as the Community Mediation Program, and she was part of the multi-disciplinary group which implemented the first Community Court pilot project. As an Assistant United States Attorney, Judge Higashi investigated and tried numerous criminal cases in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, including some of the most serious domestic violence and sexual assault cases involving both adult and child victims. Judge Higashi was the 2016 recipient of the United States Attorneys Association Harold Sullivan Award. She has also been awarded several United States Attorney's Awards for Special Achievement, the United States Attorney's Justice for Victims of Crime Award, the United States Attorney's Award for Excellence in Management, the United States Attorney's Award for Creativity and Innovation, and several Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office Service Awards. For several years, Judge Higashi was a member of the Superior Court's Domestic Violence Rules Advisory Committee.

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The Honorable Sherri Beatty-Arthur has served as a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia since 2020. Before joining the court, she served as an Administrative Law Judge with the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, where she presided over matters in all jurisdictions, including Public Benefits, Regulatory Affairs, Rental Housing and Unemployment Insurance. Judge Beatty-Arthur previously served as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she focused on civil rights and labor and employment. She also served as a Partner in the law firm of Arthur & Arthur, PLLC, where she represented clients in family law, employment law, and small business development. Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed Judge Beatty-Arthur to serve as the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer for the Office of Employee Appeals for D.C. She also served on the executive team with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she advised management on recruitment and human resources. Judge Beatty-Arthur is the former Chair of the Washington Bar Association’s Judicial Council and the 2018 recipient of the Charlotte E. Ray Award from the Greater Washington Area Council of the National Bar Association for her commitment to minority women in the legal community. Judge Beatty-Arthur received her Bachelor of Arts degree and MBA from the University of Maryland. She received her Juris Doctor from the Howard University School of Law.

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Michele Booth Cole, J.D. has served as Executive Director of Safe Shores–The D.C. Children’s Advocacy Center since 2003. Under her leadership, Safe Shores introduced Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children® child sexual abuse prevention training to the Washington Metropolitan Area in 2007, since then reaching over 13,000 adults. A graduate of Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center, Michele has earned a number of awards for her servant leadership, including the National Children’s Alliance DEI Leadership Award, the Center for Nonprofit Advancement’s Excel Award, Washingtonian of the Year, and the Meyer Foundation’s Exponent Award. Michele’s most treasured role is as the grateful mother of three wonderful daughters.

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Tiffany Henderson has been with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) since 2015 and is currently the Program Manager of the Child Sex Trafficking Team within the Analytical Services Division. She is responsible for the daily operational oversight and management of 18 analysts and two supervisors. This team of analysts is dedicated to supporting the FBI and other local/state/federal law enforcement agencies who are working to identify and recover child victims of trafficking, as well as to identify and prosecute individuals involved in trafficking children. Ms. Henderson was previously an analyst on the Child Sex Trafficking Team with NCMEC before becoming the Supervisor in 2018. She has previous law enforcement experience working five years in various positions at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and as a Criminal Research Specialist for the Joint Tactical and Strategic Analytical Command Center for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC. She has provided extensive technical assistance to law enforcement across the United States and participated in various law enforcement special operations. Ms. Henderson holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

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Rashida Prioleau is the Chief of the Child Protection Section II, in the Family Services Division at the Office of the Attorney General, for the District of Columbia. For fourteen years, Rashida handled the civil prosecution of child abuse and neglect cases in the District of Columbia. Rashida has vast experience in working with a diverse team of professionals including social workers, medical experts, federal and local law enforcement, child advocates, and mental health professionals. Rashida is particularly skilled at using a multidisciplinary team approach in the prosecution and treatment of child abuse. Rashida has experience working in specialty assignments such as working with unaccompanied refugee minors and working at the Child Advocacy Center as part of the multidisciplinary team participating in the forensic interviews of alleged child victims of physical or sexual abuse. In January 2018, Rashida became the sole child welfare prosecutor in HOPE Court, a treatment court in the District of Columbia that works with sexually exploited children in the child welfare and juvenile systems. Rashida provides training to international and national audiences on the dangers, warning signs, and risk factors of the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Rashida is the co-chair of the DC Human Trafficking Task Force a group of just under three hundred members of federal and local government agencies, medical professionals, and NGOs dedicated to anti-trafficking work. In her current role as Chief, Rashida manages a group of Assistant Attorney Generals handling the civil prosecution of abuse and neglect, including those that appear in appear in HOPE Court.

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Kathryn Rifenbark is the Director for CyberTipline, Public Reports, in the Exploited Children Division (ECD) at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), where she has worked for over 14 years. Kathryn is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of NCMEC's CyberTipline, the reporting mechanism within the U.S. for suspected online child sexual exploitation, with a concentration on its response to reports received from members of the public. In addition, she manages NCMEC's programs to notify companies of hosted CSAM material, to reduce revictimization of survivors. Kathryn helped spearhead NCMEC’s efforts to improve resources for reporting people and survivors of child sexual abuse material and continues that work today by liaising with law enforcement, victim service providers, and child serving professionals.

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Sheryldine Samuel, MPH

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