The Honorable Joseph C. Welty is the Presiding Judge of the Judicial Branch in Maricopa County. He was appointed to the Superior Court in 2007 by Governor Napolitano and has served on the Family, Criminal, Juvenile and Civil benches in Maricopa County. Judge Welty was the Presiding Criminal Department Judge from 2012-2015 and was the Associate Presiding Judge of the Judicial Branch from 2015-2019. In August of 2019 he was appointed Presiding Judge by the Arizona Supreme Court. Prior to taking the bench, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in Phoenix for 16 years where he served as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Section and the Chief of the National Security Section. Judge Welty has taught extensively on a broad range of topics for the U.S. Department of Justice, the Arizona Office of the Courts and numerous bar associations, and has been an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. He co-chaired the New Judge Orientation Program for the Arizona Supreme Court and chaired the Supreme Court’s Criminal Rules Task Force as well as the Task Force on Rule 32 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. He currently serves on the Presiding Judges Committee and Arizona Judicial Council. Judge Welty was born and raised in Phoenix. He received his undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount University and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.