The Hon. Kea L. Whetzal Riggs is a judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. She was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump on May 13, 2019.
Prior to her appointment, Riggs was a judge for the 5th Judicial District Court of New Mexico, a position to which she was named by former Governor Susana Martinez in 2014. Before that, she worked part-time as a magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (2001 to 2014).
Riggs earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Oklahoma in 1987. She spent the next few years working as a clerk for Apache Drug (1988) and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (1989 to 1990) before completing a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1990.
After graduating from law school, Riggs began her legal career as an attorney at Cutter & Riggs in Las Cruces. She worked in that capacity until 1991, at which time she became an assistant district attorney for the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Then, in 1993, she joined the New Mexico Department of Children, Youth & Families, where she served as a children’s court attorney.
Riggs transferred to the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office shortly after becoming a children’s court attorney. She spent the next five years working as a senior trial prosecutor in Roswell, eventually leaving to become an associate at Sanders, Bruin, Coll & Worley.
Her memberships have included the Chaves County Bar Association, the Doña Ana County Bar Association, the Federal Magistrate Judges Association, and the George L. Reese American Inn of Court. She has also been involved with the Board of Directors of Assurance Home, the Esperanza House, and the Las Cruces Rape Crisis Center, and she sat on the New Mexico Sentencing Commission Sex Offender Management Board.
Born in Midwest City, Oklahoma, Riggs attended the New Mexico Military Institute. She and her husband, Stanton, have two children.