Gov. John deJongh, Jr. Friday sent the names of three Virgin Islands attorneys to the 29"’ Legislature for nomination as Superior Court judges, nominated a new member to the University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees, and renominated two existing board members, Government House announced.
• Denise A. Hinds was named to serve as a judge in the Family Division of the Superior Court on St. Croix. If confirmed by the Senate, Hinds will replace Judge Patricia Steele for a six-year term on the bench.
Hinds obtained her law degree and bachelor’s of science degree from Duquesne University. Since 1995 she was assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office on St. Croix. She was the prosecutor on Project Safe Childhood, which targeted criminals who sexually exploited children. Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Hinds worked for a year with the Virgin Islands Department of Justice as an assistant attorney general.
• The governor nominated Debra S. Watlington to the Superior Court’s Family Division on St. Thomas to replace Judge Audrey L. Thomas.
Watlington, a graduate of Howard University School of Law, has worked since 2010 as the chief territorial public defender for the Virgin Islands Territorial Public Defender’s Office. She joined the Public Defender’s Office in 2003, and served before that as chief of staff for the Island Housing Authority.
• Douglas A. Brady has been selected to replace Judge Julio A. Brady as a Superior Court Judge on St. Croix.
Brady has worked for the firm of Jacobs & Brady P.C. since 1984. He has also been a U.S. District Court and Virgin Islands Superior Court certified mediator since 1993 and an arbitrator on the Commercial and Employment panels and the Virgin Islands Public Employees Relations Board.
Brady graduated in 1976 from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America. He was elected as a delegate for the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the Virgin Islands, sitting on the Judicial Branch Committee.
“Attorneys Hinds, Watlington and Brady, throughout their distinguished legal careers, have all demonstrated the tremendous aptitude and sound judgement that will make them excellent members of our territory’s judiciary,” deJongh said of his three nominees.
• DeJongh also nominated Gwendolyn Adams Norton to a five-year term on the University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees,
Adams is a financial services executive with board experience in the non-profit sector. In 2010, Norton was advanced leadership initiative fellow at Harvard University, where she pursued her interest in public school education. She has been senior vice president and business banking executive for Wachovia Bank, and before that was chief operating officer and vice president for Banco Popular’s Virgin Islands region.
Adams holds a bachelor’s of art degree from the College of William and Mary and has completed an executive program at Louisiana Stats University’s Graduate School of Banking of the South.
The governor also renominated existing UVI Board of Trustees members Jennifer Nugent Hill and Wesley Samuel Williams, Jr. for new five-year terms.
