The Judicial Nominating Commission has submitted recommendations to fill judgeship vacancies in the Superior Courts of the Dougherty, Enotah, Northern, Ocmulgee, and Ogeechee Judicial Circuits.
The nominees include White County Chief Magistrate Joy Parks, who is one of two people nominated for the Enotah circuit vacancy. Also in northeast Georgia, three people have been nominated for a vacancy in the Northern Judicial Circuit.
The vacancies in the Dougherty and Ocmulgee Judicial Circuits were created by the appointments of Stephen S. Goss and E. Trenton Brown, III to the state Court of Appeals. The vacancies in the Enotah, Northern, and Ogeechee Judicial Circuits were created by the resignations of Murphy C. Miller, Thomas L. Hodges, III, and William E. Woodrum, Jr. Governor Deal will fill the vacancies from among the lists of nominees.
The following names were submitted to Gov. Deal:
*Dougherty Judicial Circuit
Victoria S. Darrisaw – Chief Judge, Dougherty County State Court
Leisa G. Johnson – Chief Public Defender, Dougherty Judicial Circuit
John M. Stephenson, Sr. – Judge, Magistrate Court of Dougherty County
*Enotah Judicial Circuit
Joy R. Parks – Chief Magistrate Judge, White County; Joy R. Parks, Attorney, P.C.
Michelle Vaughan – sole practitioner, Michelle Vaughan, PC
*Northern Judicial Circuit
R. Daniel Graves – executive, Elberton Federal Savings & Loan Association
John Stephen Jenkins, Sr. – attorney, Jenkins Law, LLC; city attorney, City of Elberton
Lauren A. Watson – staff attorney, Judge Lawton E. Stephens, Western Judicial Circuit
*Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit
Ashley M. Brodie – partner, Brodie Law Group; prosecutor, Jones and Monroe County Probate Courts
Carl S. Cansino – The Cansino Law Firm, LLC; prosecutor, Municipal Court, City of Milledgeville
Terry N. Massey – owner, Massey Law Firm LLC; Municipal Court Judge, City of Conyers
*Ogeechee Judicial Circuit
Lovett Bennett, Jr. – sole practitioner, Lovett Bennett, Jr., Attorney At Law, P.C.; Municipal Court Judge, City of Brooklet and City of Register
V. Sharon “Sharri” Edenfield – partner, Edenfield, Cox, Bruce & Edenfield
