Patrick C. Diamond held Position 8 on the Second Judicial District bench until his death sometime before April 2025. His seat is the one Gov. Tim Walz filled by elevating Referee Victoria Elsmore to the district bench on April 23, 2025.
Why It Matters
Judge Diamond is on this map for one reason: the vacancy. On April 23, 2025, in a press release announcing the elevation, the Governor described the appointee as filling “the vacancy left by the death of Judge Patrick C. Diamond.” Three months later, on July 21, 2025, Victoria Elsmore took the oath of office under the surname Gardner and inherited Position 8.
This is a scope note, not an allegation. The reader who wants to follow how a Ramsey County referee ended up on the district bench, mid-litigation, in the middle of this file, should understand that a seat opened because a colleague died and a governor filled it. That is the mechanism.
One seat closes when one judge dies. Another opens.
Working Stub
This dossier is a working stub. The actor is on the relationship map and in the _data.php roster with facts and sources sufficient to place them on the tree; the prose narrative will be expanded when the deep-dive investigation report on this actor lands. The Quick Facts panel on the sidebar carries the current source-cited detail.
References & Sources
Every claim of fact on this page is supported by publicly sourced evidence. The links below are the primary references.