SUPERIOR Court Associate Judges Wesley Bogdan and Kenneth L. Govendo are retiring, Variety learned.
The agenda of the NMI Judicial Council meeting held on Aug. 16 mentioned the “notices of separation” from both judges.
Asked for comment, they confirmed that they were retiring, and will soon issue an official announcement.
Judge Bogdan, 65, intends to retire in December 2023, while Judge Govendo, 78, will retire in June 2024, according to their separation notices.
Before ascending the bench in November 2017, Judge Bogdan was legal counsel of the Office of the Lt. Governor and the Office of the Governor during the administrations of Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, who appointed Bogdan as judge.
Judge Bogdan obtained a Juris Doctorate from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1992. He grew up in New Mexico and received his B.A. degree from the University of Texas.
He first came to the Northern Marianas in 1994 and initially worked as an assistant attorney general assigned to the then-CNMI Department of Commerce and Labor, where he also served as a judicial hearing officer. He later worked with the Office of the Public Defender and thereafter joined a small private firm before opening his own law office as a solo practitioner. He met his wife Tomoko on Saipan.
Judge Bogdan has a lifelong passion for football and is one of the founders of the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association. He made his first senior international appearance in the 2007 East Asian Football Federation Championship qualifying match against Guam at the age of 48 years old.
In the 2022 election, Judge Bogdan was retained by CNMI voters, garnering 70% of the total ballots cast. His current term ends on Aug. 15, 2029.
Judge Govendo, for his part, was appointed as judge in 2003 by then-Gov. Juan N. Babauta, and was retained by voters in 2007, 2014 and 2020, when his retention received 80% of the total ballots cast.
His current term ends on June 19, 2027. He has started recusing himself from cases that will go beyond June 2024, Variety learned.
Born in Syracuse, New York on Jan. 28, 1945, Govendo obtained his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Alfred University in Alfred, New York in 1966, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law in 1969.
Married to Domitilia C. Govendo, he has been a resident of the Northern Marianas since 1976 and had been in private practice for the most part.
The Palacios-Apatang administration is looking at nominating attorney Joey San Nicolas of Tinian and a female attorney as replacements for the retiring judges, Variety learned.
Kenneth L. Govendo, left, and Wesley Bogdan.
