Courts & Politics

DeSantis Fills Two First Circuit Judgeships — and One Pick Raises Questions

The governor passed over ten applicants to appoint Santa Rosa County Judge Matt Gordon and Crestview attorney Paul Bailey. Bailey’s ties to the UWF Board of Trustees — and to the man who chaired the nominating commission — are hard to ignore.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed two new circuit judges to the First Judicial Circuit, which covers Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton counties. The seats were left open by the retirements of Judge Linda Nobles and Judge Jan Shackelford.

One appointment was straightforward. The other invites scrutiny.

Matt Gordon, a sitting Santa Rosa County judge, was elevated to the circuit bench—a conventional move that follows a well-worn path in Florida judicial appointments. Promoting a county judge to circuit judge is common practice.

• Paul Bailey, a Crestview attorney with the Welton Law Firm, is a different story.

A Crowded Field — and a Surprising Choice

The Judicial Nominating Commission for the First Judicial Circuit forwarded ten applicants to the governor’s office. DeSantis passed over all of them — except Bailey — to fill that second seat. The passed-over applicants included seasoned litigators, public defenders, a state attorney, general counsel to a county clerk and a sitting U.S. immigration judge.

The list forwarded by the JNC included:

• Andrew Abreu — Complex business and civil litigator; J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law (Law Review)
• Gary Bergosh — Former Santa Rosa County circuit judge; former elected Escambia County School Board member; currently a U.S. immigration judge with the Department of Justice
• Erica Dlubala — Family-law attorney at Kenny Leigh & Associates, Pensacola
• Casey Etheridge — Assistant Public Defender, First Judicial Circuit
• Patrick King — Assistant State Attorney, First Judicial Circuit (Santa Rosa County)
• Codey Leigh — General Counsel, Escambia County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller
• Stephen Luongo — Civil litigator at Clark Partington, Pensacola; business, construction, aviation, and products liability
• Molly Snyder — Attorney, Office of Regional Criminal Conflict Counsel, Pensacola
• Jeffrey Sumey — Assistant Public Defender, Milton (Santa Rosa County)
• Stephanie White — Pensacola-area attorney focusing on adoption and family law

Among those passed over: a sitting federal immigration judge with prior circuit court experience. That’s a resume that typically commands serious attention.

Promoting a county judge is common practice. Picking a private attorney over a former circuit judge and a sitting federal judge is not.

Connecting the Dots

Bailey’s appointment starts to make more sense—or raise more questions, depending on your perspective—when you trace his institutional connections.

Bailey sits on the University of West Florida Board of Trustees. So does Zack Smith, who chairs the very Judicial Nominating Commission that forwarded Bailey’s name to the governor. The two have voted together on UWF board matters.

• Bailey obtained his law degree from Regent University, a private Christian law school in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That’s the same institution that Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios “Stazi” Kamoutsas attended. Stazi is widely credited with helping DeSantis overhaul of the UWF Board of Trustees. That restructuring, in turn, cleared the path for Manny Diaz—the governor’s previous education commissioner and Stazi’s boss—to become UWF president.

None of this is illegal. Governors appoint allies. Nominating commissions are political bodies. But the First Judicial Circuit serves a large chunk of Northwest Florida, and the bench matters to real people with real cases. The question worth asking is whether Bailey’s appointment reflected the strongest available legal talent — or something else.

• Judges Gordon and Bailey will serve until the next retention election cycle. Neither appointment requires legislative confirmation.

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