Three of Kitsap County’s District Court judges have announced they intend to seek re-election this fall, and a Superior Court judge who was appointed indicated he will stand for election to that position.

Judges W. Daniel Phillips and James Riehl are both completing their fifth four-year terms, while Judge Marilyn Paja is finishing her first term. Superior Court Judge Russell Hartman, who was appointed in February by Governor Gary Locke to fill a vacant Kitsap County Superior Court position, has announced that he will run to fill the remaining two years of a four-year term.

Phillips was a Kitsap County deputy prosecutor when he was appointed to the bench in 1982. He was elected president of the Washington State District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association in 1988, and currently chairs the group’s committee that advises the state Department of Licensing on court and driver licensing matters.

It was his knowledge of ignition interlock machines for DUI offenders as well as criminal law, that contributed to his being honored as “Judge of the Year” for 1999-2000 by the Misdemeanant Corrections Association.

Phillips has also been teaching drunk driving and alcohol-related criminal law to newly elected judges at the State’s Judicial College since 1995.

A Manchester resident, he is a past president of Port Orchard Rotary and has served on its Board of Directors.

Riehl was in private practice in Bremerton for seven years before was elected as district court judge in 1982. Like Phillips, he is also a past president of the Washington State District and Municipal Court Judges Association and a past State Misdemeanant Corrections Association “Judge of the Year.”

He is the current co-chairman of the Board for Judicial Administration, which sets policy for the judiciary of the State of Washington.

The North Kitsap High School graduate is on the faculty of the National Judicial College and is a past dean for the Judicial College for the State of Washington.

He organized the first Kitsap County Domestic Violence Summit in 1977 and was awarded the first Individual Achievement Award by the Kitsap County Domestic Violence Task Force in 1978. He recently was appointed to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence. He is also a member of the Washington State Gender and Justice Commission.

Paja was elected to the Kitsap bench in 1998. Prior to that she was a municipal judge in Gig Harbor and was in private practice in Port Orchard before taking the bench in Pierce County.

A 22-year Port Orchard resident, in October, she is slated to become the first female president of Port Orchard Kiwanis.

Paja chairs the diversity committee of the State District and Municipal Court Judges Association and sits on its rules committee. She is currently working to develop a program to educate judges statewide about criminal convictions of immigrants and is a member of the State Pattern Instructions Committee, which produces instructions of law for use by all courts in the state.

Hartman practiced law for 24 years locally. He served as President of the Kitsap County Bar Association and was a recipient of its professionalism award. The Washington State Bar Association recognized his work establishing the Kitsap Volunteer Attorney Referral Service, which provides civil legal services to low income citizens.

Hartman also served on the Bremerton School Board and co-authored Initiative 728, the school finance and class size reduction initiative, which passed by a wide margin statewide.