BROOKINGS – The South Dakota Supreme Court has approved the nomination of Abigail Howard as the new full-time magistrate judge for the Third Judicial Circuit, Gregory Stoltenburg, presiding judge for the Third Judicial Circuit, announced Friday.
Howard has served the past 13 months as Brookings County state’s attorney, and an acting state’s attorney will take over her job for most of 2018 before an election fills the remainder of her term.
The Third Judicial Circuit includes the counties of Beadle, Brookings, Clark, Codington, Deuel, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Lake, Miner, Moody and Sanborn.
Howard began her legal career as an associate attorney at Fite, Pierce & Ronning Law Office in Brookings in 2011. In 2013, she joined the Brookings County State’s Attorney’s Office as a deputy state’s attorney and was then elected as state’s attorney in 2016, taking over the post in January 2017. She will begin her duties as magistrate judge on Jan. 29.
Howard said Friday that working as both a state’s attorney and a judge have been lifelong goals to which she’s aspired, and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to serve as a judge because the positions don’t come open very often.
The prosecutor said she’s honored to have worked for county residents as both deputy state’s attorney and state’s attorney, and she’s looking forward to serving them in a different capacity now.
She also noted that no other judges serving in Brookings live in Brookings.
“She is going to do an outstanding job for the Unified Judicial System,” Brookings County Commission Chairwoman Lee Ann Pierce said. “Abi will be a great magistrate judge, and we’ll be lucky to have her.”
County commissioners will appoint an acting state’s attorney at their next board meeting on Feb. 6. The acting state’s attorney will hold that position until the November elections. That race will be to fill the remaining two years of Howard’s term. When the position is up again on the 2020 ballot, it will be for the full four-year term.
The deadline for submitting petitions for the election is 5 p.m. March 27 for those filing as Republicans or Democrats. Independents have until April 24.
There is a 30-signature requirement for those running as a Republican, Democrat or Independent. For those with the Constitution or Libertarian parties, the signature requirement is five.
Those wishing to run for state’s attorney must be residents of Brookings County and be an attorney of good standing with the State Bar of South Dakota.
Howard, a Volga native, is a 2008 graduate of South Dakota State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish. In 2011, she graduated from the University of South Dakota School of Law.
She has been active in various community and professional organizations, serving as a board member for the Boys & Girls Club of Brookings and the Eastern Plains Sexual Assault Response Team and is currently serving as the president of the Young Lawyers Section of the State Bar Association.
She and her husband, Lance, live in Brookings with their son, Truman.
