AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage nominated four people, including his chief legal counsel, to be Maine District Court judges Thursday.

LePage nominated Brent A. Davis, Tammy Ham-Thompson, Stephen D. Nelson and Lea-Anne Sutton to the district court posts.

Brent A. Davis of Skowhegan, LePage’s chief legal counsel, previously served as assistant district attorney and first district attorney for the Somerset and Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Tammy Ham-Thompson of Gardiner has served as a family law magistrate for the district court since 2016. She previously was a partner at Farris Law, handling family law and general litigation cases for 12 years.

Nelson of Houlton is an attorney with Severson, Hand & Nelson practicing family law, small business representation, civil litigation and estate planning/probate administration. He provides legal representation to victims of domestic violence through the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians domestic violence program.

Sutton of Gorham works in the Maine Attorney General’s Office, serving as a felony drug prosecutor in the Criminal Division, and is assigned to the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office. She has worked for the Attorney General’s Office since 1995 and was the department’s employee of the year in 2009. Sutton has also served as an instructor at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

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LePage also nominated Judge Andre G. Janelle, Judge Bernard G. O’Mara and Judge Patricia G. Worth to serve as active retired judges for the district court.

Janelle of Saco has served in district court since 1986; O’Mara of Dyer Brook since 2003; and Worth of Belfast since 2000.

The nominees face confirmation hearings before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, followed by confirmation votes in the Senate.

Davis is the third staff attorney from the governor’s office to be nominated to the bench by LePage.

The governor previously appointed Daniel Billings, now a superior court justice in Lincoln County, and Cynthia Montgomery, a district court judge in Portland, to the bench. Another former LePage attorney, Carlisle McLean, was appointed by LePage to serve on the Maine Public Utilities Commission. McLean resigned from the PUC in June of 2017 to take a job with Central Maine Power Co.’s parent company, Avangrid.

Mike Cianchette, another former LePage attorney, was a naval officer who deployed to Afghanistan and returned to work in the private sector following his deployment while former LePage attorney Avery Day, also resigned from LePage’s office in 2016 to return to the private sector.

Scott Thistle can be contacted at 713-6720 or at:

sthistle@pressherald.com

Twitter: thisdog


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