Governor Edward T. Schafer has appointed John E. Greenwood as District Judge in the Southeast Judicial District to succeed Judge Randall Hoffman who resigned. Greenwood will be chambered in Jamestown. Governor Edward T. Schafer has appointed John E. Greenwood as District Judge in the Southeast Judicial District to succeed Judge Randall Hoffman who resigned. Greenwood will be chambered in Jamestown.
Greenwood, 50, is the Stutsman County State's Attorney. A 1975 University of North Dakota Law School graduate, he previously was in private practice in Jamestown.
Under a recent constitutional amendment, Greenwood's judicial office will be on the election ballot in 2002. The Judicial Nominating Committee had also submitted the names of Robert W. Martin and Cynthia Schaar Mecklenberg.
"I was impressed by his broad range of experience in private practice and as state's attorney," Schafer said of Greenwood. "I also thought he could help restore a sense of trust and confidence after some difficult times in the Southeast Judicial District."
Greenwood graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1971 with a degree in political science. Following his 1975 graduation from the University of North Dakota Law School, he entered into private practice in Jamestown with Kenneth L. Dalsted. In 1977, they entered into a partnership with Charles J. Gilje. That partnership, Gilje, Greenwood and Dalsted, continued until May 1993, when Greenwood was appointed Stutsman County State's Attorney. Greenwood served as an assistant state's attorney for Stutsman County from February of 1977 through December 1986. He was elected State's Attorney in 1994 and reelected in 1998.
He serves on the Supreme Court's North Dakota Legal Counsel for Indigents Commission, and as treasurer of the North Dakota State's Attorneys' Association.
Greenwood is a Lecturer of Criminal Justice at Jamestown College, where he teaches "Criminal Law."
Greenwood and his wife Susan (Shoman) have three children: Joseph, a senior at the University of North Dakota; Karen, a junior at the University of North Dakota; and Michael, a sophomore at Jamestown High School. Susan, a 1974 graduate of the University of North Dakota, is employed at JC Penney in Jamestown.