Governor Tim Pawlenty today announced that he has accepted the recommendations of the Commission on Judicial Selection for a Sixth Judicial District trial court bench vacancy in the city of Duluth in St. Louis County.  The opening will occur with the retirement of the Honorable Terry C. Hallenbeck on April 30, 2006.  The finalists are Leslie E. Beiers, Eric Hylden, and David M. Johnson.

Beiers, of Duluth, is a senior assistant St. Louis County Attorney in Duluth.  She has been an assistant St. Louis County Attorney since 1995.  Beiers was an assistant Carlton County Attorney from 1991 to 1995, a staff attorney with Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota from 1985 to 1991, and a law clerk to United States Magistrate Judge Patrick McNulty in Duluth from 1983 to 1985.  Beiers earned her juris doctorate degree from the University of North Dakota Law School in Grand Forks in 1983, and her bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude from the University of North Dakota in 1980.

Hylden, of Duluth, is an attorney and shareholder with the law firm of Reyelts, Leighton, Bateman, Hylden and Sturdevant in Duluth, a position he has held since 1992.  He was an associate attorney with the firm from 1987 to 1992.  Hylden earned his juris doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1987 and his bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota - Duluth, in 1984.

Johnson, of Duluth, is the adult felony prosecutor in the St. Louis County Attorney's office in Duluth.  He has been a prosecutor in the St. Louis County Attorney's office since 1996, except between January 2002, and June 2005, when he was on active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel with the United States Marine Corps in Washington, DC, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Bagram, Afghanistan.  Johnson was also a prosecutor in the Hennepin County Attorney's office in Minneapolis in 1996, and a prosecutor with the U.S. Marine Corps in San Diego, California from 1993 to 1995.  Johnson earned his juris doctorate degree cum laude from Notre Dame Law School in 1993, and his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1983.

The Commission on Judicial Selection screens judicial candidates and makes recommendations to the Governor for district court vacancies that occur during the term of a judge.  The commission consists of 13 members: nine at-large members and four members from the judicial district.  The commission members include attorneys and non-attorneys appointed by the governor and the Minnesota Supreme Court.  The commission received 18 applications for this judicial vacancy.