One of the island’s prosecuting attorneys has been chosen to assume a judgeship.
Darien W. L. Ching Nagata was appointed by Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald to District Court of the Third Circuit, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Barabara T. Takase.
Nagata has been a deputy prosecuting attorney for the county since 1998, where she currently supervises the District and Family Court Domestic Units. She had supervised the Circuit Court Unit that handles child and adult sexual assaults, homicides and violent crime cases. From 2008-14, Nagata was cross-deputized to serve as the Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, where she assisted with Project Safe Neighborhood.
Nagata was twice the president of the island’s bar association and served as the association’s representative to co-chairman of the committee to establish Hilo’s Self Help Center. She is currently an active member of the Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services to the Public, where she assists in the ongoing effort to promote and provide legal services to the public, and the Diversity, Equality, and the Law (DEAL) Committee, developing programs to eliminate gender, ethnic, and other bias and discrimination in the legal profession and judicial system.
The bar association appointed her as commissioner of the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission. She has worked as a neighbor island representative, furthering the commission’s goal of substantially increasing access to justice in civil legal matters for low- and moderate-income residents.
She’s also spent nine years as a volunteer arbitrator for the Court Annexed Arbitration Program, and as a volunteer mediator with the Hawaii County Foreclosure Mediation Program.
The Chief Justice appoints District Court judges from a list of not less than six nominees submitted by the Judicial Selection Commission. If confirmed by the state senate, Nagata will serve a term of six years.