Linn County Counselor on short list for judge appointees for 6th Judicial District

The 6th Judicial District nominating committee is in the process of selecting a judge to serve in the Bourbon County Courthouse. That judge will replace Mark Ward who recently retired. (6th Judicial District website)

By Charlene Sims, Journal staff

LCJeditor@icloud.com

TOPEKA – The Sixth Judicial District Nominating Commission met on Monday, Oct. 7, to set up a meeting to interview applicants to fill the judicial vacancy which opened up with the retirement of District Judge Mark Ward in Bourbon County. The applicants include Linn County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta.

The Sixth Judicial District is composed of Linn, Miami and Bourbon counties. The commission members are Mary Stephenson, Zackery Reynolds, Pat Apple, Marc McCoy, Ronald Wood, Todd Schneider and Justice Larkin Walsh.

Larkin told the commission members that Schneider would not be able to participate in this round because of an obligation that he has as president of the funeral directors association. Larkin said that was unfortunate but if the commission wanted to involve Schneider they could talk about how to do that. They did not discuss it in their meeting.

Larkin continued saying that three of the five applicants are from outside of the judicial district, which is permissible. She said that by statute if there are not three applicants from within the district, the commission could consider folks from outside of the district.

Larkin assigned commissioner members to take the lead with specific applicants to do reference checks, including talking with people and the applicant. Stephenson will take Joshua Albin, Andover; Reynolds is assigned to James Crux, Pittsburg; Apple has Madeline Jensen, Spring Hill; Wood has Terra Tecchio, Fort Scott; and McCoy has Paletta, who is a Louisburg resident.

Larkin and the members agreed on meeting for the interviews on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 9 a.m. at the Linn County Courthouse, and then going into the general meeting, and an executive session to go over the candidates’ history and credit reports. Then, the 30-minute interviews will begin at 9:30 a.m. with 15 minutes in between interviews.

Apple stated he had a conflict later in the afternoon that day and might have to leave early. It was decided to set up the meeting on Zoom.

Discussion was held about starting out the interviews with the two candidates, Paletta and Tecchio, who have been interviewed before for another judicial vacancy. It was mentioned that Paletta’s application had been sent to the governor to be considered at that previous commission interview session.