CHARLESTON – Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has announced the appointment of Jennifer Dent and Mark Wills as Circuit Court judges for the 11th and 9th districts, respectively.
Dent replaces Judge James Rowe, who retired, and Wills' replaces Judge Omar Aboulhosn, who resigned to take a federal position. Both Dent and Wills won the elections for those seats earlier this month. Their terms would have begun in January 2017.
Dent
"I appreciate the willingness of both Jennifer and Mark to serve in these important roles," Tomblin said in a statement. "Their dedication to their local communities and to the law is evident, and I'm confident both will serve their judicial circuits well."
A native of Greenbrier County, Dent attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Cumberland School of Law before returning to West Virginia in 1994. Since 2002, she has served as assistant prosecutor in Greenbrier County. In that role, she prosecuted child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency and juvenile status offenses and misdemeanor and felony cases.
Dent is a member of the Greenbrier Valley Bike Club, which sponsors Wheels of Hope to raise money for local cancer patients. She is a past recipient of the Champion for Children award.
"I'm very excited to serve the people of Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties," Dent said. "I have a strong work ethic, and as the responsibilities of circuit court judges are expanding, I will do my best fulfill those duties."
Wills graduated from Concord University and the West Virginia University School of Law. He is a native of Princeton, where he currently practices at Wills Law Office. He represented the 27th district in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1999 to 2002 and the 10th district in the West Virginia Senate from 2010 to 2012.
Wills has been a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board since 1999 and the chairman since 2013. He also is on the board of the Princeton Community Hospital.
"I'm very honored Governor Tomblin appointed me," Wills said. "I will do my best to be fair and follow the law."
