TOPEKA—The Supreme Court Nominating Commission today submitted the names of three persons to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for appointment to the Kansas Court of Appeals to fill a vacancy on the court created by the court's expansion from 10 members to 11.
Nominees include Sedgwick County District Judge Thomas E. Malone, Riley County District Judge David L. Stutzman, and H. David Starkey, a Colby attorney.
The governor will have 60 days in which to make an appointment to the court. Once the appointment is made, the commission is scheduled to reconvene to submit the names of a second panel, this one to fill a vacancy on the court created by the appointment of Hon. Robert L. Gernon to the Supreme Court.
Judge Malone has been on the Sedgwick County bench since January 1991 to present. Before that, he was in private practice in the Wichita law firm of Redmond, Redmond & Nazar. While on the district court, Judge Malone has presided over more than 250 jury trials and hundreds of bench trials. In 1992, he presided over one of the state's first "hard 40" criminal cases, and the following year he presided over the first case in Kansas to allow introduction of DNA/PCR evidence. He has served on numerous hearing panels of the Court of Appeals by assignment of the Supreme Court.
Judge Malone received his law degree with honors from the Washburn University law school in 1979, and before that was graduated summa cum laude from Kansas Newman College. He is the author of numerous scholarly legal articles and served as an adjunct faculty member at Kansas Newman College from 1979 to 1987.
Judge Stutzman has been a district court judge since January 24, 1997, when he left the Manhattan law firm of Arthur, Green, Arthur and Condeman following nearly 15 years with that law office. Recently, the judge presided over the case of Kansas State University v. Morris Communications (WIBW) on broadcasting rights to KSU football. The judge entered an order in favor of WIBW's right to continue its solo broadcasts; however, within a week of the judgment, KSU and WIBW announced a complete settlement of all issues in the case, including abandonment of an appeal.
Judge Stutzman obtained a BS degree with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, and went on to serve in the Navy as the Repair Division Officer and Damage Control Assistant on the guided missile frigate USS Brooke. Following his discharge from the Navy, Judge Stutzman completed his law degree at the University of Kansas and was graduated fourth in his class in 1982.
Starkey began his legal career in 1975, first as an associate in a one-person firm in Colby, and then as an associate in the firm of Lowe & Willoughby in Colby. He became a partner in January 1976 and has been a continuous member of that firm since then. The firm continues today under the name of Starkey & Gatz, L.L.P.
Starkey served as county attorney from 1977-1979, and still is appointed occasionally as a special prosecutor in state and municipal court. He also has been retained as criminal defense counsel and has accepted appointments for indigents in criminal, juvenile, and child in need of care cases. General civil litigation always has been a significant part of a wide-ranging private law practice.
He was graduated cum laude from Kansas State University in 1969 and from the Washburn University law school in 1974, where he was assistant comments editor of the Washburn Law Journal.