(BOISE) – Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter announced the appointments today of two Twin Falls attorneys to fill judgeships in the Magic Valley’s Fifth Judicial District.

            Eric Wildman, a staff attorney for the Snake River Basin Adjudication, will succeed Gooding-based Fifth District Administrative Judge R. Barry Wood, who is retiring. Jonathan Brody, chief deputy prosecutor for Minidoka County, will succeed Judge John Melanson, who was presiding judge for the Snake River Basin Adjudication until Governor Otter appointed him to the Idaho Court of Appeals.

            “It’s encouraging that such talented Idahoans are willing to continue their careers in public service,” the Governor said. “Both men have high standards to meet in succeeding Judges Wood and Melanson, but I am confident that they will respond to the challenge with the same kind of excellence that resulted in their nominations to the bench.”

            Wildman is a Boulder, Colo., native and University of Utah graduate with a law degree from the University of Idaho. He is a former law clerk for Judge Wood. He also worked in private practice in Gooding before joining the Snake River Basin Adjudication and Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River Basin Adjudication legal staff in 1999.  Wildman and his wife, Becky, have two children.

            “I am both grateful and humbled by the appointment,” Wildman said. “I very much look forward to becoming a member of the judiciary and the opportunity to serve the citizens of the great State of Idaho.”

            Brody is a Chicago native and University of Denver graduate with a law degree from the University of Colorado. He worked in the Twin Falls County public defender’s office and the Twin Falls County prosecutor’s office and engaged in private practice before becoming Minidoka County’s chief deputy prosecutor in January 2008. Brody and his wife, Robyn, have two children.

“I want to thank Governor Otter for the opportunity to be a district judge,” Brody said. “I will work hard to live up to the trust Governor Otter and the Judicial Council have placed in me on behalf of the citizens of Idaho.”