Linda Bryant has touched just about every aspect of the state’s criminal justice system in her career: local prosecutor, deputy attorney general, administrator of Hampton Roads Regional Jail and member of the state’s parole board.
Now she’ll be a judge.
Bryant, who will sit in Chesapeake General District Court, is one of four new judges — all women of color — appointed Tuesday to preside in courtrooms across South Hampton Roads. The three others who, like Bryant, will serve six-year terms are:
Tameeka M. Williams, in Norfolk General District Court. Williams has worked as a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia for nearly 16 years, according to her LinkedIn page;
Tanya L. Lomax, in Chesapeake General District Court;
Helivi L. Holland, Suffolk General District Court. Holland, who has been a practicing attorney since 1991, has worked as the Suffolk city attorney since 2012. Before that, she served as the director of the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice, overseeing a staff of 2,200, three halfway houses and nine residential programs.
State lawmakers on Tuesday also appointed Judge Robert G. MacDonald, who already presides in Chesapeake General District, to an eight-year term on that city’s circuit court.
The higher circuit courts oversee most felony cases and major civil matters, while general district courts hear misdemeanor criminal cases and smaller civil disputes.
Jonathan Edwards, 757-739-7180, jonathan.edwards@pilotonline.com
