Four candidates are running to replace a retiring judge in Sedgwick County. Who are they?
Only one Sedgwick County District Court judgeship will have a competitive primary on Aug. 6.
Clark V. Owens, Jacqueline Kelly, Joshua D. Wright and Jarrod Kieffer are all running in the Republican primary to replace outgoing Judge Patrick Walters in the 18th Judicial District Division 14.
Walters, who was appointed to the bench in 2008 and re-elected four times, did not file to run again before the deadline Monday. Walters did not respond to a request for comment through his judicial assistant.
Jacqueline Kelly
Kelly took over as Derby’s city attorney last spring, where she does transactional work and litigation prep.
Before that, she focused on civil law for about five years as Bel Aire’s city attorney. She’s also worked as a prosecutor in the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, where she focused on juvenile, traffic and civil commitment cases.
“The county needs versatility [in judges] because the dockets are big,” said Kelly, 41. “We’re trying to move cases through, and having somebody who has experience on both [civil and criminal law] is a good thing. You can relate to both sides of the court docket.”
Kelly is involved in Wichita Women Attorneys Association and on the board of governors for the Wichita Bar Association. She also previously served as a member of the city of Wichita’s ethics advisory board.
“I’m super involved in the community. I don’t just do the lawyer thing and go home,” Kelly said.
Jarrod Kieffer
Kieffer is the only candidate who now works in a private practice. After clerking for former federal magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick for a year out of law school, Kieffer joined Stinson, a national firm with a Wichita branch, where he has worked since.
He started as an associate, working on complex civil litigation. As a partner, he has built a regional practice representing taxpayers in property tax disputes, which he said have become increasingly common in recent years due to inflation and rising property valuations.
“We have a lot of really great judges on our district court, but the vast majority of those judges have a background that is criminal in nature. My background is civil,” said Kieffer, 44.
He said he believes his experience in the courtroom is the most relevant of any candidate.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work on some very complex and sophisticated litigation from the very beginning — the filing or the answer of a lawsuit all the way through the trial process — and I’ve had the really good fortune to try a tremendous number of cases,” Kieffer said. “It is absolutely true that a lot of trial lawyers or supposed trial lawyers don’t have the opportunity to actually go to court a lot. I do.”
Clark V. Owens
Serving from the bench would be nothing new for Owens. By his count, he presided over roughly 275 jury trials as an 18th District judge from 1991-2013, including seven years as the presiding criminal judge.
After about two years of retirement, Owens started hearing cases again under Kansas’ pro tem law, which allows chief judges to appoint former judges or attorneys to serve as district court judges for a specific case or docket. Now he’s at the courthouse five to seven days a month hearing cases on the protection from abuse and stalking docket.
“I can hit the ground running. I mean I’m ready on day one,” Owens said. “They don’t have to send me to new judges school, which they do for a new judge . . . where they give them practical training from veteran judges. I won’t have to go to that. I could teach it.”
Before joining the bench, Owens served as Sedgwick County district attorney. Because state law prohibits judges 75 and older from running for re-election, Owens, 73, would be eligible to serve one more four-year term.
“I thought, what the heck, I’ll go back and get four more years,” he said.
Joshua D. Wright
Wright works as a public defender in Reno County but lives in Bel Aire. He has previous experience as a Sedgwick County prosecutor, a city of Wichita prosecutor and a Sedgwick County public defender.
“I’ve seen the ugliness of some of the crimes that are committed and I’ve prosecuted those crimes. And then I’ve also had situations where I’ve had a client that did not do it and it was my job to be the gumshoe lawyer, go and do the investigation and either convince that prosecutor that they were wrong or put that case in front of a jury and make the argument,” said Wright, 39.
He said there’s nothing quite like “being in the trenches” of a trial court, and he thinks he has the right demeanor to succeed as a judge.
“Throughout the courthouse, if you talk to people down there, they’re going to tell you that I have an even temperament. I’m somebody that is a problem solver,” Wright said. “I’m somebody that can take hot situations where those passions are at work and I can help to calm people down.”
District judge candidates running unopposed
Phillip B. Journey, Eric R. Yost, Gregory D. Keith, Eric N. Williams, Christopher Magana, Bruce Brown, Quentin Pittman, Kevin Mark Smith, Chrystal Krier, Kellie E. Hogan, Stephen Joseph Ternes, Jeff Dewey, Deborah Hernandez Mitchell, William S. Woolley, Tyler J. Roush, Sean Hatfield, Jeff Goering, Jeff Syrios, Eric A. Commer. All are Republicans.
