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Office of Gov. Dennis Daugaard
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, S.D. 57501
605-773-3212
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, May 10, 2013
CONTACT: Tony Venhuizen or Joe Kafka at 605-773-3212
Governor Daugaard Names Robert Gusinsky As Seventh Circuit Judge
PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced today that he will appoint Robert Gusinsky of Rapid City as a circuit judge in South Dakota’s Seventh Judicial Circuit.
Gusinsky will fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Mary Thorstenson. The Seventh Circuit includes Custer, Fall River, Pennington and Shannon counties.
Gusinsky is an Assistant United States Attorney, and has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 2007, working under U.S. Attorneys Marty Jackley and Brendan Johnson. Prior to joining that office, he was in the private practice of law in Rapid City. He is a 1996 graduate of the USD School of Law.
“Robert is a well-regarded attorney with a breadth of civil and criminal experience, both in private practice and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said Gov. Daugaard. “I appreciate that he is willing to serve the public as a circuit judge.”
Gusinsky was born in Latvia, which at the time was a part of the Soviet Union. In 1978, at the age of 13, he came to the United States with his family, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1986. He is a 1990 graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, where he earned his degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and worked as a commercial airline pilot and flight instructor.
“As an immigrant from a communist country that did not offer its citizens meaningful legal protections, I am especially sensitive to the importance of the rule of law,” Gusinksy said. “I very much look forward to serving the people of South Dakota and the Seventh Circuit.”
Gusinsky is on the Board of Directors of the South Dakota Lions Eye and Tissue Bank, and is also active in the Blue Knights, a law enforcement motorcycle association that raises funds for the needy. He and his wife, Ronda, have two children.
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*Gusinsky (guh-ZIN’-skee)