Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, who administered the oath to Inos, said the new judge will be fair.
“I know him personally very, very well. He’s very fair and like what he said, he’s going to continue to uphold the law fairly [and squarely]. I know he would make a very fair judge,” Fitial told Variety.
The Senate confirmed Inos’s nomination on Thursday.
He will serve a term of six years. Voters will then decide whether to retain him or not.
Inos’s wife, Debbie, their children, his father, Rota Mayor Joseph S. Inos, and other relatives attended the ceremony held in the governor’s conference room.
Shortly afterward, Inos reported to Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja.
Inos said he will hear both civil and criminal cases.
“But I’m not sure what specific cases I will be assigned to,” he said in an interview.
Describing himself as a deeply religious person, Inos said “every judge that sits on the bench, I believe, is challenged by each of the case that comes. Cases are fact specific or may be issue specific. I just take them as they come. I can’t prejudge any case. I have to really thoroughly listen on the arguments presented before the court.”
Inos was teaching at Northern Marianas College when he felt the urge to study law.
“I thought of going to law school and being an attorney after five years out of my undergrad,” he recalled.
His cousin Elaine Inos, the daughter of Finance Secretary Eloy Inos, is now a practicing attorney in Seattle, Washington.
The new judge earned his law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1994.
Before he went into private practice, Inos worked as an assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Office of the Attorney General and as associate attorney at the Law Office of John A. Manglona who is now an associate justice of the CNMI Supreme Court.
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