Kelly Tua Hammers was sworn in as Monday as the new district judge in Derry Township.
Hammers, 50, was appointed in October by Gov. Tom Wolf to fill out the remaining two months in the term of District Judge Mark Bilik, who retired in August.
Bilik had been hearing cases as a senior judge. Hammers said she will start work Tuesday and begin hearing cases on Wednesday.
A Democrat from Derry Township, Hammers won a full six-year term earlier this month to serve as district judge. She was unopposed on the November ballot after defeating two candidates in the spring primaries. Her full term will begin in January.
Hammers said she officially resigned from the district attorney’s office on Monday, where since 1997 she worked as an assistant county prosecutor and specialized in prosecutions of sexual assaults, civil asset forfeiture cases and juvenile crimes. She also served as an instructor for the Municipal Police Academy at Westmoreland County Community College teaching criminal law, civil law, and search and seizure and legal updates.
Hammers is a Derry Area Senior High School graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from Dickinson School of Law.
Four other district judges elected this month will begin their terms in January. Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Calisti Tyburski, 45, of Penn Township will replace retiring Judge Helen Kistler in the township; Assistant Westmoreland County Public Defender Tamara Mahady, 32, of Latrobe, will replace her cousin, Michael Mahady, who is retiring a year’s end, and will preside over the court based in Unity; and South Greensburg police Chief Scott Fanchalsky was elected to replace Hempfield District Judge Anthony Bompiani, who resigned last year.
District Judge Mark Mansour of Hempfield, who ran without opposition, will begin his fifth term in office.
