Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed Associate Circuit Judge Christine Carpenter to fill a vacancy at the circuit judge level in Boone and Callaway counties.
Carpenter replaces Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton, who retired from the 13th Judicial Circuit last month after 28 years on the bench.
Carpenter was sworn in Friday at the Boone County Courthouse. She'll serve the balance of Hamilton's term through 2012 and would have to run for a full term as circuit judge.
Carpenter's husband, Joe Bindbeutel (BIHND'-boy-tuhl), worked for Nixon in the Missouri attorney general's office before Nixon was elected governor. Last year, Bindbeutel was deputy director of the state Department of Natural Resources when the agency took about a month to release a report on high levels of E. coli bacteria at the Lake of the Ozarks.