Bemidji attorney finalist for judge post

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 23, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

The state Commission on Judicial Selection announced Monday that Douglas Johnson, the supervising attorney for Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota in Bemidji, is a finalist for a Ninth Judicial District trial bench vacancy in Koochiching County.

Johnson, Brian Hardwick of Warroad and Charles LeDuc of International Falls are finalists for the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Peter Hemstad on May 31.

"It (is) very much an honor," Johnson said Tuesday.

The next step for each finalist is an individual interview before Gov. Jesse Ventura. If time is available next week for the governor to conduct interviews, the new judge should be named in early July, according to John Hultquist, the governor's judicial appointments coordinator.

Johnson has been the supervising attorney at Northwest Legal Services in Bemidji for 10 years, working mostly with family law matters.

Prior to that, he sandwiched time with Legal Services of Northeast Minnesota, the Central Minnesota Legal Services Disability Project and Indian Legal Assistance, all of Duluth, around a stint as attorney and partner in the law firm of Ginsburg and Johnson in Duluth.

He received his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California in 1975, and earned a bachelor's degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., in 1972.

Johnson, who was raised in Moorhead, resides in Bemidji with his wife and a daughter.

"I've dedicated myself to public service, and I feel a judgeship would be a continuation of that," he said. "Ninety-five percent of judging is working with people in some fashion. And I have a lot of experience in dealing with family law."

Hardwick, of Warroad, is a solo practitioner and an assistant Ninth District public defender. He has also been the Warroad city attorney and an attorney with the law firm Carter, Mergens and Hardwick and its successor, Mergens and Hardwick in Roseau and Warroad.

He is a 1979 graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law in Detroit, and earned his bachelor's with honors from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich., in 1976.

LeDuc, of International Falls, is an attorney and partner in the International Falls law firm of Shermoen, LeDuc and Jaska. He has also been an assistant Ninth District public defender.

He earned both his law degree in 1979, and his bachelor's in 1975, from the University of North Dakota.

The finalists were chosen from a group of 11 candidates who applied for the vacancy. The state Commission on Judicial Selection then interviewed all 11 in Grand Rapids on June 14.

The commissioners voted by secret ballot for their top three choices, and those were forwarded to the governor.

The commission consists of 13 members, nine at-large members and four members from the judicial district. The members include attorneys and non-attorneys appointed by the governor and the Minnesota Supreme Court.