Judges
Judge Victoria Shackelford
Victoria I. Shackelford is the Chief Judge of the 23rd District Court in the City of Taylor.
Judge Shackelford, running unopposed, was returned to the bench with nearly 97 percent of the vote during the General Election of November 2022. Her new term runs through January 1, 2025. She had been originally appointed to the bench to replace the retiring Judge Geno Salamone a year earlier.
Judge Shackelford formally served as a Wayne County assistant prosecutor. She was the lead of the office’s arson unit and previously worked in the community prosecution and homicide units. Before that, worked as an attorney with Goldin and Associates, PLLC and Freedman, Krochmal and Goldin, PLLC where she practiced criminal law and worked as a public defender. She also worked as a member of the 33rd District Court’s Sobriety Court program.
Judge Shackelford earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toledo College of Law and Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Eastern Michigan University. She is the director of legal education for FAIR Michigan and the treasurer of Downriver Families Against Narcotics. She lives in Taylor with her wife Amy and three sons, Andrew, Maxwell, and Mason.
Judge Joseph Slaven
Judge Joseph Slaven serves on the bench of the 23rd District Court in the City of Taylor.
Judge Slaven graduated in 1994 from the University of Michigan with dual Bachelor’s Degrees and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit School of Law, where he serves as an adjunct professor. Judge Slaven first took the bench on January 1, 2015.
Judge Slaven served on the Client Protection Fund Committee of the State Bar of Michigan and is a member of the DeMolay, Golden Ark Masonic Lodge, Moose, Taylor Northwest Little League, and Democratic Club. He also is the varsity boys and girls golf coach at Taylor Trillium Academy.
A lifelong resident of the city, Judge Slaven graduated from Gabriel Richard High School in 1988. Slaven and his wife have been married since 1990, and have three children. Judge Slaven is the son of Councilman Ira Slaven.