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Yuma County Lawyers Urge Diversity In Next Appointed Court Commissioner

 

The Yuma County Judicial Selection Committee will gather Saturday to interview candidates for an open Court Commissioner position in Yuma County’s Superior Court. 

 

They will interview top candidates and recommend the best three, but Presiding Judge David Haws will be the decider. Judge Haws will appoint the Commissioner who will sit on the bench for up to a year.  

 

Yuma lawyers are urging Judge Haws to use this power responsibly and prioritize diversity in making his decision.  

 

In a letter, lawyers say women and Latinos are underrepresented on the court, and that it is Judge Haws’ duty as an elected official to change the Superior Court to reflect the community. 

“The selection of a new commissioner is an opportunity for you to be an agent of change, and to lessen the appearance of inequality and the disparity and underrepresentation of women and other minorities on the bench,” the letter reads. 

 

But recreating the racial and gender makeup of the community on the Superior Court is less of a duty and more of an obligation for Presiding Judge Haws. 

An Arizona Supreme Court order that sets standards for the selection of special judicial officers in Yuma County, states the process has to be sensitive to the community’s racial, ethnic, and gender configuration.  

 

Retired attorney and Cochise County Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore Candyce Pardee says the Yuma County Superior Court may not be fulfilling its obligation. 

 

Pardee said she was the top candidate recommended for a position on the Yuma County Superior Court, but then Judge John Nelson, the Presiding Judge at the time, appointed a male candidate. 

 

“He said ‘I am going to go with this male candidate,’” said Pardee. “I was totally shocked that he would actually admit it. That he would say it out loud. He was saying, ‘I am going with the person who was already filling that spot even though he was rejected by the voters.’”

 

Pardee applied for positions on the Yuma County Superior Court three times, but each time a male judge was selected.  

 

The Yuma County Superior Court did not respond to KAWC’s request for comment before the time of publication.  

 

Attorney Pamela Walsma was one of the Yuma lawyers who signed the letter to Presiding Judge Haws. She says the makeup of Yuma’s Superior Court has changed little since she started practicing law in the county 30 years ago. 

 

“The position that is currently being filled was filled by a woman and she is moving to the Juvenile Court, so that will leave all White males, non-Hispanic on the Superior Court for criminal and civil cases,” Walsma said. 

 

“Somebody has to say something. Most of the public doesn’t realize this.” 

 

The appointment will be announced after the Yuma County Judicial Selection Committee deliberates and puts forth its top three candidates Saturday.

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