JUDGE KEA RIGGS FILLS A VACANCY ON THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – With the United States Senate recently voting to confirm the Presidential nomination of State District Judge Kea Riggs to be a United States District Judge for the District of New Mexico, earlier today President Donald J. Trump signed the commission formally appointing Judge Riggs to the position of United States District Judge. At 2:45 p.m., MST, December 31, 2019, in Roswell, N.M., Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Bobby R. Baldock administered the oath of office to Judge Riggs thereby allowing her to become the 23rd U.S. District Judge in New Mexico since statehood in 1912. Albuquerque will be the official duty station for Judge Riggs and in the coming weeks there will be a formal investiture ceremony at the U.S. Courthouse in Albuquerque.
A native of Oklahoma, Judge Riggs has strong ties to the state of New Mexico. She is a 1983 high school graduate from the New Mexico Military Institute. And after earning a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1990, Judge Riggs served the state of New Mexico as an Assistant District Attorney (Third Judicial District), a children’s court attorney with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, and as a Senior Trial Prosecutor (Fifth Judicial District). She also practiced law with the Roswell law firm of Sanders, Bruin, Coll and Worley, P.C. and she has served as an adjunct professor at Eastern New Mexico State University-Roswell and New Mexico Highlands University-Roswell.
For the past five years, Judge Riggs has served as a general jurisdiction judge in the Fifth Judicial District Court in Roswell. Before becoming a state district judge, she served as the part-time U.S. Magistrate Judge in Roswell for thirteen years.