PROVIDENCE — The Judicial Nominating Commission made its picks late Wednesday of lawyers to interview for three judicial openings, lists that include a smattering of new names.

For the Superior Court seat left vacant by the recent retirement of Judge Netti C. Vogel, the panel selected Angelyne E. Cooper-Bailey, legal counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training; Maria F. Deaton, a former prosecutor who now works for Lynch & Pine and is a probate judge in East Providence;  Kas R. DeCarvalho‎, a partner with Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O'Gara and who serves as vice chairman of the Board of Directors The Metropolitan Career and Technical Center; Michael B. Forte, a partner with the Warwick firm Lonardo Forte & Trudeau and senior administrative judge of the Cranston Municipal Court;  and Assistant Attorney General Joseph J. McBurney, who prosecutes some of the state’s highest profile gun cases.

Also on the list are Clerk of state Supreme Court Debra A.‎ Saunders, the court’s former deputy general counsel who owns The Daily Scoop ice cream shops with her husband; Assistant Attorney General Shannon Signore, who prosecutes child abuse and child sex crimes for the state;  District Court Judge Christopher K. Smith, a former public defender named to the bench in 2018; and Assistant Attorney General Mark J.‎ Trovato, chief of the attorney general’s Washington County office.

The position is a lifetime seat with a $170,545 base salary.

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For two District Court seats, the commission selected to interview nine. These include Anthony F. Amalfetano, a sole practitioner who serves as a Warwick Probate Court judge; Johnston lawyer Joseph R. Ballirano, a private practitioner; David V. Igliozzi, a former Democratic state senator and Providence City Councilman who now serves as a Providence Housing Court judge;  Assistant Attorney General Amy Dodge Murray, who runs the Providence County grand jury for the state; and District Court Magistrate J. Patrick O’Neill, a former Democratic House Majority Whip named to the bench in 2017.

Also on the list are Providence private practitioner Paul D. Ragosta, a son of late Superior Court Judge Vincent Ragosta, along with Cooper-Bailey, Saunders and Signore.

The District Court openings were created by Judge Elaine T. Bucci’s retirement and the passage of law authorizing an additional judgeship meant to accommodate a new mental health treatment calendar. The commission selected the same people to interview for both positions.

They are lifetime seats with a $165,158 base salary.

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District Court Chief Judge Jeanne E. LaFazia has assigned Judge Pamela Woodock-Pfeiffer to preside over the mental health treatment calendar, according to Kara A. Picozzi, a spokeswoman for the courts. Woodcock-Pfeiffer for years has overseen the veterans court, an alternative judicial process for veterans diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury who were charged with misdemeanor crimes.

Woodcock-Pfeiffer participated in training in July in Washington, D.C., with other judicial officers, exploring the intersection between criminal justice and mental health, Picozzi said.

Staff is being selected and trained and a team assembled comprised of representatives from the Rhode Island Public Defenders' and Attorney General's offices and the Rhode Island State Mental Health Advocate. The first referrals to the voluntary calendar are expected to be in February, Picozzi said.

The mental health treatment calendar was approved by state lawmakers last session as an alternative judicial process for people charged with misdemeanor offenses who are eligible for the program. It aims to integrate support and treatment, and potentially provide alternatives to traditional prosecution, sentencing and incarceration.