Quick Facts
Biography
George Kendall Sharp (born December 30, 1934) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Sharp was born in 1934 in Chicago. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1957. Sharp entered the Naval Reserve in 1957, and served on active duty from 1957 to 1960. He retired in 1988 with the rank of captain. Sharp received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1963.
Sharp was in private practice in Vero Beach, Florida from 1963 to 1978, and served as public defender of the 19th Judicial Circuit from 1964 to 1968. He was school board attorney for the Indian River County School District from 1968 to 1978.
Sharp served as a judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit from 1978 to 1983. He was on the faculty of Indian River Community College in Ft. Pierce in 1979.
President Ronald Reagan nominated Sharp to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on November 1, 1983, to a seat vacated by Isaac Benjamin Krentzman, Jr. Confirmed by the Senate on November 15, 1983, he received commission the next day.
Sharp assumed senior status on January 1, 2000. He serves on the Orlando division of the court.
In 1991, Sharp "rejected charges by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that five automobile-window tinting shops in Florida violated federal safety standards by installing window film that blocked too much light." Sharp also presided over the 2008 case of former Backstreet Boys and NSYNC manager Lou Pearlman in connection with a long-running fraudulent investment scheme. Sharp sentenced Pearlman to 25 years in prison.