Arizona governor appoints two new Maricopa County judges

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David Garbarino and Quintin Cushner

PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed two new judges to replace two who are retiring from the Maricopa County Superior Court.

The Republican governor on Friday named current court Commissioner David Garbarino and private practice attorney Quintin Cushner to judgeships in the state’s most populous county. They fill vacancies created when judges Sherry Stephens and David Udall retired.

Garbarino is a fourth generation Arizona resident who was raised in Flagstaff and earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Arizona. While attending college, he interned for the state Senate’s appropriations committee. He earned his law degree at Arizona State University’s law school.

Before becoming a court commissioner, Garbarino worked in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office enforcing state consumer fraud laws and was in private practice for a decade. He worked as a certified public accountant before attending law school. Garbarino has been a Republican since 2016 but was a registered Democrat from 2000 to 2015.

Garbarino noted in his judicial application that his father, William F. Garbarino, also served as a judge on the Coconino County Superior Court and on the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Ducey said Garbarino’s broad legal experience will make him an excellent judge.

"It is exciting that David will follow in his father’s footsteps serving the State of Arizona as a judge," Ducey said in a statement.

Cushner was raised in Pennsylvania and earned his undergraduate degree in history at Oberlin College in Ohio.

He then worked for more than five years as a local newspaper reporter in Roswell, N.M., and in Santa Maria, California. He covered the child molestation trial of pop star Michael Jackson and wrote a series about methamphetamine abuse.

Cushner’s application said exposure to the court system prompted him to attend law school at the University of Arizona, where he earned his law degree in 2009. He is a registered Democrat.

He has been a partner at the law firm Dentons since 2019 and has litigated civil, administrative and criminal cases in Arizona and nationally. Cushner worked at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson from 2013 to 2019 and has been a special prosecutor for the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

"Quintin brings both criminal and complex civil experience to the table and he has truly excelled in his legal career," Ducey said.