Field of judge candidates narrowed

An attorney who was co-counsel in the case that bankrupted the Aryan Nations, Kootenai County’s chief deputy prosecutor and a magistrate judge are the three finalists for a newly created district judge’s position.

The Idaho Judicial Council interviewed nine applicants Friday and passed the names of three finalists to the governor’s office for consideration Monday.

Brad Hoaglun, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Risch, said he doesn’t know when the governor will make his appointment, but he expects it will be soon.

The Legislature created the new judge’s seat last spring in response to an increasing caseload in Kootenai County. The judgeship will be the sixth in the First District, which includes Idaho’s five northern counties.

“I feel privileged to be on the short list, but there’s still a long way to go,” said Coeur d’Alene attorney Ken Howard, one of the three finalists.

First District Magistrate Scott Wayman and Kootenai County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes declined to comment.

Haynes, who was admitted to practice law in Idaho in 1982, is second-in-command at the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office. He is co-counsel in the upcoming triple-murder trial of Joseph Edward Duncan, who faces the death penalty if convicted.

Haynes was a finalist for a magistrate judge opening in 2000, at which time Wayman was appointed.

Wayman graduated from the University of Idaho Law School in 1981.

He worked in private practice in Orofino, Idaho, and was a public defender in Clearwater County. Wayman was formerly a deputy prosecuting attorney in Kootenai County and also worked for a civil attorney for the county.

Howard has his own law firm in Coeur d’Alene and has been practicing law for more than 30 years.

Together with civil rights lawyer Morris Dees and Coeur d’Alene attorney Norm Gissel, Howard helped secure a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations.

The judgment bankrupted the white supremacist group.

Howard was one of the finalists for an Idaho Supreme Court opening in 2003 and for a First District judge’s seat in 2000.

The Legislature this year also created another district judge’s seat in the Third judicial district. Gordon Petrie, a magistrate judge in the Third district, was appointed to that position.