One of these four nominees will be the next District Court judge. Here's the names.
The panel that helps select the state’s judges submitted four names to Governor Dan McKee for his consideration for a District Court vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Christopher K. Smith to state Superior Court.
The Rhode Island Judicial Nomination Commission last week chose Joseph R. Ballirano, a Johnston solo practitioner with three decades of experience; Kas R. DeCarvalho, a partner with Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O'Gara who serves on the board of directors of the Thurgood Marshall Law Society; Family Court Magistrate Denise Cassisi Finkelman; and Assistant Attorney General Amy Dodge Murray, who oversees the Providence County grand jury.
More: Three District Court seats are open. Here's who's been nominated
The commission made its choices after a public hearing and interview process at which the commission heard from 18 speakers who provided testimony on behalf of the nine candidates who were interviewed, according to the commission.
The other contenders were Assistant Federal Public Defender Rebecca L. Aitchison; Angelyne E. Cooper-Bailey, legal counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training who in 2021 became the first attorney of color nominated and appointed to serve as a judge on the Cranston Municipal Court; Maria F. Deaton, a former prosecutor who now works for Lynch & Pine and is a probate judge in East Providence Magistrate; Assistant Attorney General Robert E. Johnson; and Mark J. Trovato, chief of the attorney general’s Washington County office.
It is a lifetime tenure seat with a $165,158 annual base salary.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI District Court will have a new judge. These lawyers are the nominees
