Means To Move From Magistrate To Circuit Judge Position

Carmen Means picPIERRE, S.D. (AP) – Gov. Dennis Daugaard is appointing two new judges in the Third Circuit.

Special assistant attorney general Pat Pardy will fill the vacancy created by the June retirement of Judge Tim Tucker. Magistrate Judge Carmen Means will replace Judge Robert Timm, who’s also retiring next month.

Means has been a magistrate judge in the Third Circuit since 2013. Before that she worked in private practice and as a public defender and advocate. She’s on the state Bar Commission and the Drug Court Advisory Council. She is also a member of the newly formed Beadle County Drug Court set to begin later this year.

Pardy is chief legal counsel for the state Corrections Department. He previously has worked in private practice, as a public defender and also as a deputy state’s attorney. He is a colonel with the South Dakota National Guard, and has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan.