Kotzebue and Nome draw two applicants each for their empty superior court seats

Kotzebue and Nome each drew two applicants for their vacant superior court seats, the Alaska Judicial Council announced Oct. 30. Because the council must send the governor at least two nominees for each judgeship, both applicants in each town would have to make the cut. It's the council's third try at Kotzebue's seat and its second at Nome's.

Both towns have been without their only superior court judge since Judges Paul Roetman in Kotzebue and Romano DiBenedetto in Nome retired. In July, nearly all of Roetman's open cases were moved to an unassigned docket.

The earlier tries came up short. In May, the council voted to nominate only one Kotzebue applicant, Daniel DalleMolle, so it sent the governor no names. A second round drew fewer than two applicants by its July deadline. In Nome, after a public hearing and two interviews in August, the council nominated no one, saying its vote "did not result in at least two sufficiently qualified nominees." In September, it advertised both seats again.

DalleMolle, the Public Defender Agency's supervising attorney in Kotzebue, is applying again. Molly Banas, an assistant public defender in Nome, applied for the Nome seat. Liz Mering, an assistant public advocate in Anchorage, applied for both.

Statewide, 16 attorneys filed 20 applications for six superior court seats, and seven applied to be Alaska's public defender.

In Anchorage, two seats opening with the planned retirements of Judges Una Gandbhir and Herman G. Walker drew five applicants: Seth Beausang, an assistant U.S. attorney; Ryan Bravo, a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Agency; Mark Clark, the district attorney in Bethel; Sam Laffey, an assistant public advocate; and Ben Muse, an assistant federal defender. Muse was one of the council's four nominees for an Anchorage District Court seat in August.

Palmer's seat, a new judgeship the Legislature authorized this year, drew six: Beausang, Clark and Laffey, who also applied in Anchorage; Windy Hannaman, a Palmer attorney in private practice; Brittany Occhipinti, a senior assistant attorney general; and Palmer District Court Judge Patrick McKay Jr.

The Fairbanks seat opened when Judge Patricia Haines was appointed to the Court of Appeals. It drew five: Heather M. Brown, a Fairbanks attorney in private practice; Jennifer Page Hite, an assistant public advocate; Anna Elizabeth Ralph, an assistant district attorney; and two Fairbanks magistrate judges, Risa Leonard and Spenser Ruppert.

The public defender job opened after Terrence Haas resigned in late August. The agency represents people who can't afford a lawyer in criminal and some other cases. It took on about 19,000 new cases in the 2026 fiscal year and has 14 offices. Six of the seven applicants work for it now: Banas, Lars Johnson, Erika S. Kahill, Cait McFadden, Renee McFarland and Chong Min Yim. Julia Moudy is in private practice in Anchorage. Banas is the only one applying for both a judgeship and the public defender job.

The council will interview applicants and hold public hearings in February 2027. It has to nominate at least two people for a job before the governor can fill it. The governor has 45 days to appoint judges from its lists. The governor also picks the public defender from the council's nominees, and the Legislature must confirm the choice for a four-year term.

The council takes public comment on applicants' qualifications. It doesn't give commenters' names to applicants, and it doesn't consider unsigned comments unless they're corroborated, independently substantiated or acknowledged by the applicant.