Judicial Service
Began service on the County Court Bench in December 2013
Education
J.D. University of Miami - 2003
B.A. Stetson University - 2000
Background
Judge Quartermaine currently serves as a Sarasota County Judge. She presides over county criminal and civil divisions.
Governor Scott appointed Judge Quartermaine to the bench in 2013 following her nomination by the Twelfth Judicial Circuit’s Judicial Nominating Committee. She was born and raised in Sarasota County and graduated from Pine View School for the Gifted. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics with concentrations in French and Philosophy from Stetson University. She earned her law degree with honors from the University of Miami School of Law. While in college, Judge Quartermaine studied at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. During law school, she interned for the United States Department of Justice. After graduating from law school, Judge Quartermaine practiced creditors’ rights in federal court in Tampa. She then returned to Sarasota where she worked as Court Counsel for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, performing a variety of research and legal services for three years to this Circuit’s judges and Court Administration. Judge Quartermaine then joined the State Attorney’s office where she practiced as a prosecutor in both the misdemeanor and felony divisions, prosecuting thousands of defendants including, violent felons, career criminals, and gang members, and she was the first prosecuting attorney of the State Attorney’s Office’s white-collar division where she specialized in fraud and elder exploitation cases as well as animal cruelty cases.
In 2015, Judge Quartermaine was named in the 40 Under 40 in the West Coast of Florida by the Business Observer. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Sarasota County NAACP Chapter’s Freedom Award for Public Service and the West Coast Woman Magazine featured her as a “West Coast Woman”. In 2017, she received the Unity Award from the 941 CEO Magazine and was one of five nominees for the Florida Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Award. In 2018, she received an acknowledgment from the Sarasota Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers for her work with Mental Health Court. In 2018, the Supreme Court of Florida appointed her to the Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts where she and the other appointees drafted the Florida Adult Mental Health Court Best Practice Guidelines, which were adopted by the Supreme Court of Florida in 2023. In 2021, the City of Sarasota presented Judge Quartermaine with the Key to the City in honor of her work with those criminal defendants experiencing homelessness and severe mental illness. In 2022, the Sarasota Coalition on Substance Abuse named Judge Quartermaine the Citizen of the Year. Additionally, she has served as the President of the Thomas E. Penick Jr. Elder Law Inn of Court and as President of the John M. Scheb Inn of Court. She has served a faculty member in the Conference of County Judges and the Advanced Judicial Studies College and she is currently an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida.
Judge Quartermaine is a proponent of problem-solving courts and has presided over several programs including: the Comprehensive Treatment Court (“CTC”); Health Care Court (“HCC”) and Turn your Life Around Court (“TYLA”).
HCC is a mental health court program that Judge Owens started in 2008. It is designed for individuals who are experiencing mental illness which likely led to the commission of the crime and where the interests of justice are best served by offering treatment to the offender. Judge Quartermaine presided over that program from 2014 until 2019.
CTC a post-booking diversion program for seriously mentally ill low-level offenders. Judge Quartermaine spearheaded this program beginning in 2013 and it took its first participant in 2017 after a four-year collaboration with numerous community organizations and units of government and the procurement of $2.4 million in grant funding. The program was a response to the lack of resources for the seriously mentally ill and the corresponding significant rise in their incarceration. She presided over CTC from its inception until 2021.
Additionally, in 2015, Judge Quartermaine partnered with various members of the criminal justice community, including Selah Freedom, to start TYLA which is a specialized program for those charged with prostitution and related crimes. The intent of TYLA is to address the individual’s underlying issues such as trauma and addiction as well as to provide resources for victims of human trafficking. It was the first program of its kind in the United States. She currently presides over this program.
Judge Quartermaine lectures frequently on problem-solving courts and the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system. Over the years, she has volunteered in numerous community organizations, including the Sarasota Junior League, the Sarasota Ski-a-Rees and the Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Sarasota County Agricultural Fair and Second Heart Homes.
Judge Quartermaine is a proud wife and mother of two young men. She enjoys boating and traveling.