Senate confirms seven to D.C. courts and agencies

In a confirmation blitz on Friday, the Senate confirmed seven nominees to Washington's local courts and law enforcement agencies.

The confirmations add two new judges to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals - the city's equivalent of a state supreme court - and three new judges to the District of Columbia Superior Court. A court spokesman confirmed that there is one vacancy left on both courts.

Superior Court Chief Judge Lee Satterfield, though a spokesman, said that he is grateful the Senate acted on the nominations, and is pleased to have more judges joining the Superior Court bench.

Corinne Beckwith and Catherine Easterly, both attorneys with the D.C. Public Defender Services, were confirmed as the newest associate judges on the appeals court. Both testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which considers judicial appointees to local Washington courts, on Sept. 23.

Beckwith was Obama's first nominee to the appeals court. She has been an appellate lawyer with the Public Defender Service since 1999 and supervisor of the appellate division since 2009. Easterly has been with the Public Defender Service since 2003, and serves in the Special Litigation Section.

The three new Superior Court judges are Peter Krauthamer, Superior Court Magistrate Judge John McCabe Jr., and Danya Dayson. All three were nominated in July and appeared before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Nov. 8.

Krauthamer is deputy director of the Public Defender Service. McCabe has served as a magistrate since 2002. Dayson is an associate at Washington's O'Toole, Rothwell, Nassau & Steinbach.

The Senate also confirmed Nancy Ware as director of the city's Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, and Michael Hughes as the new U.S. Marshal for District of Columbia Superior Court. Both of those positions have been vacant since 2008.

Ware is a management analyst for the agency, a federal body that oversees probation, parole and supervised release in Washington. She was nominated on Aug. 2, and previously served as director of the city's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. Hughes, who has served with the U.S. Marshals Service for 18 years, was nominated to lead the service's Superior Court division on Sept. 23. Both also testified before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Nov. 8.

The remaining vacant seats on both courts are on their way to being filled. The White House announced Nov. 17 that Roy McLeese III, the chief of the appellate division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, was its nominee to fill the last vacancy on the appeals court.

In October, the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission released the names of 20 applicants vying for retiring Judge Joan Zeldon's seat.

(Published by LegalTimes - November 22, 2011)