JUDGE WILLIAM H. OVERTON, was born in St. Petersburg, Florida on January 29, 1953.  He was raised on the island of St. Petersburg Beach.  He was active in the Boy Scouts and obtained the highest rank of Eagle Scout.  He graduated from Boca Ciega High School in 1971, and entered the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.  He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from VMI in 1975, and was also commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.  He received his Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas in 1979, and was subsequently admitted to the Florida Bar.  He is married to the former Dolores Valente and has two children, Bill (25) and Brian (21).

                      Judge Overton was employed by James T. Russell, State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit from December 1979, until January 1988.  He became a felony trial assistant and was responsible for prosecuting all degrees of felonies, including capital cases, and in October of 1985, he was promoted to Misdemeanor Division Chief.  In January of 1988, he was appointed as a Pinellas County Court Judge by Governor Martinez, and was elected to the County Court Bench without opposition in September 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2006.   Judge Overton is active in the Florida Bar Association, and is a past chair of The Florida Bar Judicial Nominating Procedures Committee.  He is active in the Conference of County Court Judges and currently a member of the DUI Review Board. 

                      Judge Overton is active in his community and coaches Youth Baseball and took his Senior Little League team to the World Series in 1998.  He is a member of St. Anne of Grace Episcopal Church in Seminole.  He is a member of its Bishop’s Committee and is active in their youth activities.  Judge Overton is active with the Pinellas County Schools and assists in a curriculum that exposes eight graders to the Criminal Justice System and is a adjunct professor with St. Petersburg College where he teaches Criminal Litigation.  He is a retired Major in the United States Army Reserve, Military Police Corps. In 1990-91 his reserve unit was activated and he took a leave of absence from the bench and served in Iraq and Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. 

                             Judge Overton is currently assigned to the traffic division, handling criminal traffic matters and is frequently called upon to lecture on criminal traffic matters.