The Fifth Judicial District Nominating Commission will interview all four announced candidates for the position opening up when Judge Merlin Wheeler retires later this year.
Interviews will be Aug. 11 at the Lyon County Courthouse. Local private attorney Jeremy Dorsey will interview first, followed by Assistant Lyon County Attorney Laura Miser, Assistant Anderson County Attorney Elizabeth Oliver and Fifth District Magistrate Judge Doug Jones. All four candidates will have 30-minute interviews. The board is tentatively set to vote on the candidates to send to Governor Laura Kelly for her consideration by the end of the Aug. 11 meeting.
Interviews are open to the public but will not be livestreamed or held by Zoom.
Initially, there was some consideration given to interviewing the three local candidates, but the board denied a motion from Charles Rayl to that end by a 6-2 vote. Rayl’s concern was Oliver’s work history, given prosecutor positions in Anderson, Montgomery and Sumner counties and Lyon County’s history of having long-serving judges — like Wheeler, who has been on the bench for over 30 years and will officially retire Sept. 2.
