A chief deputy heading the criminal division in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office has been appointed as a district judge in neighboring Ramsey County.

Gov. Tim Walz announced the appointment on Friday of David Brown to the bench of Minnesota's Second Judicial District, which covers all of Ramsey County. The selection fills a vacancy left by the appointment of Jeffrey Bryan to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Walz said in a statement accompanying the announcement that Brown "has spent his entire legal career serving the people of Minnesota, and I am grateful that he will continue that service on the bench. His tenure in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office speaks to the depth and breadth of his experience, as well as his commitment to the values of diversity, inclusion, and fairness in the legal field."

In his time with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, Brown has led initiatives on diversity and inclusion, drug reform, expungement expansion and bail reform. He has previously worked in the child protection, adult prosecution and appeals divisions.

Brown first worked in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office in 1985 as a law clerk and assumed his current post in the office in June 2012.

He received his undergraduate degree from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., and his law degree from the University of Minnesota.

He was among three recommended to Walz by the state's Commission on Judicial Selection as candidates to fill the vacancy. The others were Kellie Charles, a senior attorney in the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office, where she has worked since 1997; and Edward Sheu, a partner at the Best & Flanagan law firm in Minneapolis, where he has worked for 15 years.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482