sentences:  As an attorney, Culver was part of a team that defended eight Virginia slaves in a freedom suit, "Lemmon v. New York" (1852), successfully gaining their freedom in New York City's Superior Court.Culver was later elected judge of Brooklyn's City Court, serving from 1854 to 1861.In 1857 Culver decided the well-known freedom suit of a fugitive slave named "Jeems" and set him free by ruling against the people who had detained him, including police officers who hoped to collect a bounty under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.