Judge Laverne Castillo was a young Judge in service from 2116 to to 2123, and one of Dredd's key allies at the time.
Biography[]
Castillo graduated from the Academy of Law in 2116 (so nervous at the graduation ceremony that she dropped her badge in front of the presiding Barbara Hershey) and in her first day on the streets, she was partnered with Judge Neil Nyman. In her very first incident, she froze up when realising a presumed unarmed perp was armed, and as a result Nyman was seriously wounded. She was taken off street duty and ransferred to administrative duties, serving as the personal adjutant to Chief Judge McGruder.[1] Before her transfer, Psi-Judge Karyn had a precog flash that Callisto could make it and encouraged her to keep a journal to sort out her thoughts. [2]
On the first day of her adjutant job, she had to put up with a senile McGruder 'helping' get a fly off her by shooting at it.[3]
As well as becoming painfully aware how mentally unstable the Chief Judge was, Castillo was sent to SJS HQ to retrieve Dredd. When SJS Judge Eliphas groped her, she struck him across the face and was threatened over it; she later wrote that she couldn't realistically put in a formal complaint as nobody would believe a first-year with her record over an SJS senior, and had to hope he'd forget she'd hit him. When she asked Hershey for advice, she found herself being sounded out as a possible spy against McGruder, something leaving her depressed that the Department feuded rather than think of the city. She was also deeply concerned about Tek-Div head Todd Greel, who she saw as power-hungry.[4]
Castillo accompanied the Chief Judge on a diplomatic visit to the planet Hestia. When their spaceship crashed there, Castillo so impressed Judge Dredd that on their return home he recommended that she be transferred back to street duty.[5] (She turned down McGruder's offer to be her personal assistant)
On her first day back on the streets, she responded to a shooting by a gang called the Tribe and found Judge Gill unwilling to follow her into battle for fear she'd not cover him adequately. Dredd arrived to support Castillo in front of Gill and, out of earshot, told her not to let him bother her.]Castillo took out the Tribe's chief and got the gang to surrender, and was bemused to find the gang were happy to go the cubes and have their reps "made". [6]
Two years later, she was handpicked by Dredd to help clean up "the Pit". Castillo helped investigate crooked Judges so Dredd could circumvent a compromised Special Judicial Squad but turned down his offer to take over as local SJS chief, saying she didn't enjoy spying on other Judges.[7]
By early 2123, Castillo was now a senior Judge and led a task force to prevent the curing of the common cold in the name of stability.[8]
She accompanied Dredd to Lawcon as part of a covert diplomatic mission to form an international alliance against the Law Lords. However, when responding to a call for help from the station staff, she was lured into a trap and abruptly murdered by the shapeshifting c-nidarius aliens. The c-nidarius impersonated her for a time to lure other Judges into the trap before they were exposed. A disgusted Dredd discovered her corpse hanging in the station's kitchen frezer and remarked this was "no damn way to die"[9]
Trivia[]
- During her time on Hestia, Castillo developed a secret and unrequited crush on Judge Dredd. Writer John Wagner never developed this theme any further with her character, but this idea was taken up again with the character Galen DeMarco and used to greater effect, with significant repercussions in the relevant stories.