The Judicial Nominating Commission has selected six Owensboro attorneys as nominees to fill two judicial vacancies in Daviess County — one for Circuit Court Division 2 and one for District Court Division 1.
Announced Thursday by Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, the nominees for the Circuit seat are Bryce Lowry Caldwell, William Russell Duty III, and Leigh Ann Jackson. That seat became vacant following the February 28 retirement of Judge Jay A. Wethington.
Caldwell is a law partner with Gordon, Goetz, Johnson & Caldwell and earned his juris doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan.
Duty is a solo practitioner and a graduate of Washington & Lee University School of Law in Virginia.
Jackson earned her law degree from the University of Tulsa and recently joined the Daviess County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office after 15 years with the public defender’s office.
Duty is also a nominee for the District Court seat, alongside Phillip Jermaine Page and Brian Louis Quattrocchi. That vacancy was created when Judge David C. Payne was elected to Circuit Court in November 2024.
Page is a staff attorney for Daviess Family Court and earned his law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law.
Quattrocchi is a prosecutor with the Daviess County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and a graduate of Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
The Kentucky Constitution requires the Judicial Nominating Commission to submit three names to the governor for each vacancy. Gov. Andy Beshear has 60 days to appoint a replacement from each list.
Circuit Court handles matters including felonies, civil disputes over $5,000, adoptions, divorces, and probate. District Court oversees misdemeanors, juvenile cases, probate of wills, traffic violations, and civil matters under $5,000.
The 6th Judicial Circuit and District covers all of Daviess County.
