CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Governor Albert Bryan, Jr.’s nominees for seats on the Virgin islands Superior Court — Assistant U.S. Attorney Alphonso Andrews and Assistant Attorney General Sigrid Tejo — have decades of experience in all aspects of the legal system, and they each have
successful careers as prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Attorney Tejo and Attorney Andrews are each native to St. Croix and have successfully prosecuted a number of high-profile criminal cases for the U.S. District Curt of the Virgin islands.
Attorney Tejo graduated from the Manor School on St. Croix and went to Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., where she obtained a Master’s degree in Education. In 1992, she took a job as a paralegal and began her career in the legal field. She graduated with a law degree in 2003 from the Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire Law School).
She joined the Virgin Islands Department of Justice in 2009 in the Office of Collective Bargaining before transitioning in 2011 to the V.I. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, where she prosecuted crimes of violence. In 2014, she accepted a position with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on St. Thomas, where she prosecuted firearms cases drug cases and violent crimes.
During that time, she also was named the Project Safe Neighborhood coordinator for the District of the Virgin Islands.
“It is my honor to accept the Governor’s nomination for a seat as a Superior Court Judge of the Virgin Islands,” she said. “This nomination has filled me with a strong sense of pride for the confidence placed in me. Service to the community is a responsibility I always take seriously.”
Attorney Andrews graduated from Central High School and the University of the Virgin islands, and he holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland.
He has been employed as an internal revenue agent with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, an assistant attorney general with the Virgin islands Attorney General’s Office, a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a Territorial Court judge and is now back with the U.S.
Attorney’s Office as the deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.
In that capacity, he manages the St. Croix U.S. Attorney’s Office, prosecutes criminal cases in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands and occasionally prosecutes cases on behalf of the Government of the Virgin
islands as a cross-designated assistant attorney general.
He is married to Valencia Plaskett-Andrews and they have a daughter, Rukiya.
“It is indeed a great honor to have been nominated to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin islands, a position that carries an awesome responsibility,” he said. “I am humbled and thankful for the rare opportunity to serve my community in that capacity and now look forward
to participating in the legislative confirmation process.”
The nominations of the Governor’s appointees must be approved by the Virgin islands Legislature.