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Gov. Mills nominates three Bangor-area lawyers as District Court judges

By Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News Staff

Gov. Janet Mills has nominated three Bangor-area lawyers, along with one from Fryeburg, to serve as District Court judges.

The nominations of Terence Harrigan, 59, of Bangor; Joshua Randlett, 37, of Hampden; Meghan Szylvian, 35, of Holden; and Peter Malia Jr., 56, of Fryeburg were announced Jan. 6 on the governor’s website.

They are expected to replace three District Court judges who retired last year: Bruce Jordan, 63, of Veazie; Kevin Stitham, 69, of Dover-Foxcroft; Susan Oram, 64, of Falmouth; and Deborah Cashman, 53, of West Bath, who is being elevated to the Superior Court bench. 

Gov. Paul LePage first nominated Cashman to the bench in 2016. Prior to that, she worked in the criminal division of the Maine Attorney General’s office.

Judicial appointments are for seven years.

Harrigan, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, graduated from Madawaska High School, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. He has practiced criminal and civil law in Bangor since joining a local law firm in 1990. 

His wife, Alice Clifford, is an assistant district attorney in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. That makes it highly unlikely that he would handle criminal cases in those counties.

Randlett has practiced employment and personal injury law at a Bangor firm since 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Maine in Orono and the University of Maine School of Law in Portland.

Szylvian graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor,  Boston College and the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. She has worked in the Child Protection Division of the Maine Attorney General’s office since 2012.

Malia graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Syracuse University College of Law in New York.  He joined a small law practice in Fryeburg in the late 1990s after working in the Maine Attorney General’s office. 

On Jan. 6, Mills renominated William Stokes, 71, of Augusta to continue serving as a Superior Court Justice. He was first appointed by LePage in 2014.

In addition to those appointments, Mills nominated Warren, Jordan and Oram to work part-time as active retired judges.

All nominees must appear before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and be confirmed by the Maine Senate before taking the bench.

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