A judicial nominating commission for Douglas County soon will take applications to replace District Court Judge Stephen Six, who Gov. Kathleen Sebelius named this morning as Kansas attorney general.
Until an official replacement is sworn in, William Lyle, a retired district judge from Reno County in Hutchinson, will help handle the caseload in Douglas County, said Ron Keefover, a Kansas Judicial Branch spokesman.
The county's administrative judge issued a congratulatory statement to Six this morning.
"He is an excellent choice for the position. He will bring the utmost integrity, diligence, intelligence and wisdom to that office," Douglas County Chief Judge Robert Fairchild said in a written statement. "At the same time, Judge Six's appointment as attorney general is a great loss for our judicial district."
Fairchild, who is out of town due to a family illness, said Six was well-liked by judicial colleagues and court staff.
The nominating commission will begin taking applications soon, Keefover said. Eventually its members will conduct interviews and send two or three names to Sebelius, who will appoint one person from the list.
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Eric Rosen will organize the process, and he is a nonvoting chairman for the commission.
The commission is made up of three Douglas County lawyers - Ed Collister Jr., John W. Nitcher and Janine A. Cox. Also, the three nonlawyers on the panel are Kurt von Achen of Eudora and John Frick and Milton Scott, of Lawrence.
Sebelius appointed Six to fill the county's newest judgeship in 2005.
During that selection process, the commission sent to Sebelius the names of Six, Peggy C. Kittel, a judge pro tem in Douglas County, and James George, a Lawrence defense attorney who also has worked as a small-claims court judge.
Fairchild said the process for selecting Six's replacement could take three to four months.
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notwhatyouthink (anonymous) says…
Guess we will get another Defense attorney as a judge now.
To me this is a conflict of interest. If you practiced law as a defense attorney in Douglas County you have been against the prosecutors, and made contracts with criminals.. I mean defendants, so how can you be unbiased in handing down a fair ruling.
I guess it because we all know that lawyers are honest, moral, do whats right, type of people.
Lynn731 (anonymous) says…
Peggy Kittel is an excellent choice! Thank you, Lynn
LawSW (anonymous) says…
If they pass on Peggy Kittel again, she should go somewhere where she's appreciated. She's been a good judge, was sitting on the bench and should've been picked when Six was shoved in the job in 2005 out of nowhere.
Uhlrick_Hetfield_III (anonymous) says…
Cronyism, not integrity and rationality seem to guide Sebelius choices for her appointments. Chris Biggs waged an aggressive campaign and came within votes of holding this office. Is Judge Six going to be as aggressive a campaigner? I don't think so, but at this point he may do well cleaning the AG's office up.
Valkyrie_of_Reason (Kathy Getto) says…
small minds.........................................