PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Former House Speaker Joe Shekarchi won’t be the next justice on the R.I. Supreme Court, Gov. Dan McKee announced Wednesday, after months of controversy over the lawmaker’s effort to get the seat.
At a State House news conference, McKee announced he has picked R.I. Superior Court Judge Luis Matos as his nominee for the seat. A former assistant U.S. attorney, Matos was first appointed to the bench in 2012 by then-Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
Matos, 62, was born in Batalha, Portugal, and immigrated to Rhode Island in 1969. He grew up in the Fox Point neighborhood of Providence and became the first person in his family to graduate from college, attending Brown University and then the University of Connecticut School of Law. (He is not related to Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos.)…