The portrait of the judge who started the “drug court” program in Hamilton County Criminal Court now hangs on the wall of the courtroom she presided over for 18 years.
Commissioned by former Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz, who said he wanted to honor his predecessor, Rebecca Stern, the painting joins the portraits of former Judges Joseph Dirisio and Tillman Grant.
“There are a lot of attributes to her legacy here in Hamilton County — in my view, the creation and running mechanics of the drug recovery has to be at the very top,” Greenholtz said by phone Wednesday.
“That was her idea. Working in conjunction with Bill Cox and Zach Wamp, who at the time was in Congress,” Greenholtz said. “I think we’ve all benefited from her leadership in that regard. So I’m just very glad to see her portrait up on the wall. It absolutely deserves to be there.”
Wamp was the U.S. Representative for Tennessee’s Third Congressional District from 1995 to 2011, while William “Bill” Cox was the Hamilton County district attorney from 1996 to 2014.