Gov. Mitch Daniels has appointed the replacement for former Marion Superior Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Indiana in June.

The governor on Monday appointed Barbara L. Cook Crawford as the newest Marion Superior judge, and she began her service today. Cook Crawford has spent much of the last two decades in the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. She’s also worked in the Office of the Indiana Attorney General and Marion County Public Defender’s Office.

She earned her J.D. from Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, where she has been an adjunct professor since 1998 teaching trial advocacy.

Marion Superior Judge Robert Altice, presiding judge of the executive committee, said a decision hasn’t yet been made on which court the new judge will preside over. That will be decided at the executive committee meeting Friday, though Judge Altice doesn’t believe she’ll be assigned to environmental/community court following Judge Michael Keele’s move to the civil side earlier this year.

Describing his new judicial colleague, Judge Altice said that she was an excellent choice from a list of very qualified candidates, and that Cook Crawford “is very intelligent, compassionate, and has a tremendous demeanor which will serve her well as a judge.”

The governor’s office conducted interviews in mid-July with the nine people who’d applied for the position: Mark D. Batties III, a Marion Superior master commissioner; Greg Bowes, Marion County assessor who was a Democratic candidate for county prosecutor earlier this year; John J. Boyce, Marion Superior commissioner; Shatrese M. Flowers, Marion Superior commissioner; Bruce A. Hugon, partner at Stuart & Branigin; Jeffrey L. Marchal, Marion Superior commissioner; Victoria M. Ransberger, Marion Superior magistrate; and William K. Teeguardan, retired administrative law judge now working for the state.