TOPEKA—The 1st Judicial District Nominating Commission today submitted the names of three area attorneys to fill a judge vacancy created by the October 1st retirement of Hon. Philip C. Lacey.
Nominees include Michael D. Gibbons, Tonganoxie; Gerald R. Kuckelman, Atchison County Attorney, and Cheryl A. Marquardt, an assistant Leavenworth County Attorney.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will have 30 days in which to make the appointment. The Nominating Commission will then submit the names of three persons to fill a second vacancy in the district, this one created by the retirement of Hon. Frederick N. Stewart, who also retired effective October 1.
The Nominating Commission interviewed 15 applicants for the vacancy Monday and Tuesday at the Leavenworth County Justice Center.
Gibbons is in private practice in the Basehor firm of Gibbens & Sonntag. He has been in private practice since 1980, and served as a staff attorney with Legal Services for Prisoners in late 1978 until 1980. A native of Belleville, he is a graduate of Washburn University law school and of Baker University in Baldwin.
Kuckelman has been Atchison County Attorney since 2001 and has maintained a private practice since 1987. Before that, he served as an assistant Harvey County Attorney and as an assistant attorney general. He is a graduate of Washburn University and the WU law school.
Marquardt has served as an assistant county attorney in Leavenworth since June 2008. Before that, she practiced law from 1994 to 2008 in the law office of Michael G. Jones and Cheryl A. Marquardt, P.A. in Leavenworth. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas.
The 1st Judicial District Nominating commission includes Justice Erice S. Rosen as the nonvoting chair and Robert D. Beal, Leavenworth; John R. Kurth, Atchison; J. David Farris, Atchison; E. Roger Horsky, Leavenworth; Rosemary Niles, Atchison; Mildred G. McMillon, Tonganoxie; Julie A. Clem, Atchison, and Dr. Roy A. Braum, Easton.