(InEDC) BY Cherokee Phoenix Staff 08/11/23 7:47 AM PST
Cherokee Nation citizen Leanne K. Mayberry, of South Lake Tahoe, California, was appointed to the El Dorado County Superior Court on March 30.
Judge Mayberry now fills the vacancy left by the retirement of the Hon. Suzanne N. Kingsbury. Judge Mayberry was sworn in on May 5 by Presiding Judge Vicki Ashworth at the South Lake Tahoe branch, and began hearing cases on June 27.
She was appointed after serving as a court research attorney with the El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe since 2012. In her role, Mayberry also served as a temporary judge handling traffic and small claims matters. She previously served as a deputy county counsel in Nevada County from 2004-11, handling matters involving juvenile dependency, juvenile dependency appeals and writs, LPS conservatorships, public guardian, adult protective services, behavioral health, auditor-controller, and the civil grand jury, among other assignments. Mayberry served as a law clerk to the Hon. James K. Singleton, Jr., for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska from 2002-04 and as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in 2002.
Academically, Mayberry earned her juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 2001 and her bachelor of arts degree from Wellesley College in 1996, where she was a member of the Wellesley College Shakespeare Society.
Mayberry was the youngest of her family’s five children in Anchorage, Alaska, where her father was stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard. Her maternal grandmother and other relatives including great aunts and uncles attended boarding school at the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma. She has served the community as a volunteer with Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.
Mayberry has been assigned to Department 4 by Presiding Judge Vicki Ashworth where she will hear an array of cases including civil, probate, family law, juvenile dependency and delinquency, and unlawful detainers.
