The Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday selected eight new judges to fill open seats in Newport News and a wide-ranging judicial district that spans from the Peninsula to the Middle Peninsula.
Newport News — which is losing three of its 13 judges to retirements this year — got four of the state legislature’s new appointments: A lower court judge elevated to Newport News Circuit Court, and three local attorneys becoming judges for the first time.
The selections will increase the racial and gender diversity on the Newport News bench: The picks bring the number of Black judges on the city’s 13-member judiciary to five — up from the current three — and lifts the number of women from three to four.
“These were the unanimous picks of (Newport News’) entire delegation,” said Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, who made the picks along with Dels. Marcia “Cia” Price, D-Newport News; Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News; and Jeion A. Ward, D-Hampton; and state Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton; and Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg.
Though the full General Assembly elects judges in Virginia, a longstanding tradition gives local lawmakers deference in the picks.
The Ninth Judicial District and Circuit, which includes James City County, Williamsburg, York County, Poquoson, Gloucester, Mathews and other counties, also got four new appointments — three new judges and a lower court judge promoted to Circuit Court.
The eight Peninsula-area judgeships were among more than 30 new judges elected statewide by the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Newport News General District Judge Tyneka L.D. Flythe — who has served as a judge since 2015 — was elevated to an eight-year term on the Circuit Court, upstairs in the same building.
Flythe, 43, worked nine years as a Newport News prosecutor before becoming a judge, including supervising violent crime prosecutions, and also spent a year as an assistant public defender in Portsmouth before that.
Flythe will replace Circuit Court Judge C. Peter Tench, who stepped aside earlier this month after 23 years on the bench — 18 years on the Circuit Court and five years on the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Tench reached 73, the mandatory retirement age for state judges, last summer. The law says judges must retire within 20 days of the first regular General Assembly session after his or her 73rd birthday.
Lawmakers also elevated current Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Holly B. Smith, of Gloucester, to fill a Circuit Court judgeship in the wide ranging 9th Circuit, for an 8-year term.
Smith, 48, spent about 20 years as a prosecutor — including as Gloucester’s elected commonwealth’s attorney — before becoming a judge two years ago.
For one of the lower court openings in Newport News, Charisse M. Mullen, 47, a former prosecutor at the Hampton commonwealth’s attorney’s office for 10 years who’s been in private practice since 2019, will take Flythe’s place on the Newport News General District Court, for a six-year term.
Mullen also worked at the Virginia attorney general’s office for a year and four months after working at the Hampton prosecutor’s office, according to her LinkedIn page.
Kimberly A. Kurkjian, 55, a former deputy commonwealth’s attorney in Newport News who in more recent years worked at the Virginia attorney general’s office, will begin a six-year term in August on the Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Shawn W. Overbey, 50, a local attorney who handles both criminal and civil matters, also landed a six-year seat on the Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Court bench. He has worked in recent years as a partner at the Heath, Overbey, Verser & Old law firm in Newport News.
They will take the place of Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judges Judith Anne Kline and Thomas W. Carpenter, both of whom are stepping aside this year.
While Kurkjian is white, and Flythe, Mullen and Overbey are Black, Mullin said the slate of new judges in Newport News were selected not because of their race or gender, but on account of their real world experience in the courtroom.
“I think it’s important that we have courtroom practitioners as judges,” said Mullin, who works as a Hampton prosecutor.
In the lower court appointments in the 9th District, Joshua P. DeFord, 38, of James City County, will join the Williamsburg-James City General District Court, taking the place of retiring Judge Colleen K. Killilea.
Meantime, Brian J. Smalls, 40, of Williamsburg, a defense attorney who also worked as a prosecutor, and attorney Mara M. Matthews of James City, were appointed to openings in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court — one of them created by Smith’s elevation to Circuit Court.
In a letter to lawmakers on Dec. 30, the Newport News Bar Association endorsed five candidates for the three judicial openings after an interview panel and mail voting.
For the Circuit Court spot, association members endorsed Flythe, Overbey and General District Judge Matthew W. Hoffman. For General District Court, they endorsed Overbey and local attorney Lisa M. Moore, and for the JDR spot, the bar endorsed Overbey and local prosecutor Molly Newton.
Mullen and Kurkjian did not go through the bar’s endorsement process and weren’t considered, Newport News Bar Association president Christopher Hedrick said.
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
