Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, November 16, 2015
Photo by Kevin Hogencamp
Vol. 103, No. 001 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Hank and Mary Coxe were named Children’s Advocates of the Year by Florida’s Children First.
Helping teen get second chance
Coxes recognized for work with Fernandez
Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper holds a nameplate belonging to her father, former Judge William Durden. Cooper can’t hang it in her office because the divisions are different, but she keeps it tucked inside a display case behind her desk.
Career started late, but ending too early
By Kevin Hogencamp Contributing Writer
By David Chapman Staff Writer It didn’t hit Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper until about a month ago. That’s when the paperwork came in. Retirement paperwork. Filling out details about her last day, Dec. 18, and the portrait ceremony the day before. “All of the sudden, here it is,” she said. “It’s going to happen.” She doesn’t want it to happen, though. Her legal career started almost 20 years later than most of her peers. It’s ending sooner than she’d like because state law requires judges to retire at age 70. “I don’t feel good about it at all,”
Cooper said, her calm, steady voice dropping a pitch. She has plenty to keep her busy. A 1-year-old granddaughter, a passion for decorating and work she can pick up as a senior judge. But she’s not ready to walk away from a career heavily influenced by “Daddy,” longtime Judge William Durden, and an always supportive mother. It’s a career that hasn’t had many stops. Just a decade at the State Attorney’s Office, followed by almost two on the bench. Throughout that time she’s been involved with some high-profile cases. And possibly one more next year, if things work out as she hopes. Cooper continued on Page A-10
Cooper’s colleagues made her a movie poster featuring her and her father.
Photos by David Chapman
Cooper not ready to retire
Saturday is visitation day for the 96 residents of the maximum-risk Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Correction Center near Tampa. For three hours a week, some of Florida’s most notorious youth offenders get to laugh, draw pictures and play games with the people who care most for them. Usually it’s a parent or another loved one who drops by the facility for boys, where the youngest residents are 13. The visitors often bring pictures, mementos, checkerboards and hugs. And hope. For Cristian Fernandez, who admits killing his 2-year-old brother, those hugs and hope don’t come from a family member. They come from Mary Coxe, a children’s advocate and retired Jacksonville attorney. She’s also the wife of Hank Coxe, one of several lawyers who volunteered to represent Fernandez, who at age 12 was the youngest person charged with first-degree murder as an adult in Jacksonville. Fernandez pleaded guilty as a juvenile to manslaughter and aggravated battery in the March 2011 death of his sibling and will be incarcerated until he’s 19. Until Coxes
continued on
Page A-6
Palmer could be in line for Regency’s top spot
Regency Centers Corp. last week announced the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Lisa Palmer to the additional role of president, a promotion that could put her in line to one day succeed Hap Stein as CEO of the Jacksonville-based shopping center developer. That would be significant, because we rarely see women in the chief executive suite at major Jacksonville public companies. Stein, who turns 63 next month, isn’t leaving any time soon. He said in an interview last week he intends to remain as CEO for “several years” at the company
Public
his parents founded more than 50 years ago. Stein has been CEO of Regency and its predecessor company since 1988. Palmer is 15 years younger than Stein and has been with Regency for nearly 20 years, so she would be a logical successor when Stein eventually does retire. Stein wouldn’t say if Palmer is, in fact, his heir apparent. “The board has a succession plan that’s well conceived,” he said. “Circumstances will dictate when and how this will evolve.” Palmer is succeeding Brian Smith, who will retire as president and chief operating officer
legal notices begin on page
B-1
Dec. 31. In addition to those changes, Regency announced Jim Thompson, managing director-East, will become executive vice president of operations, and Dan “Mac” Chandler, managing directorWest, will become executive vice president of development. “The board and I have a tremendous amount of confidence
in Lisa, and in Jim Thompson and Mac Chandler,” Stein said. The history of female CEOs in Jacksonville is slim. Probably the most well-known is Delores Kesler, who grew AccuStaff Inc. (which became MPS Group Inc.) into a major staffing company before retiring as CEO in 1994. More recently, Linda Farthing served as chief executive of Stein Mart Inc. for only 13 months before leaving for personal reasons in 2008. Another executive who could be a future CEO is Cindy Sanborn, who was recently promoted Basch continued on Page A-7
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