Kitsap County Superior Judge Theodore Spearman has returned to the bench after suffering a heart attack.

“I am as vital as I can be,” Spearman said last week. “And I am living every day as if it is my last.”

Spearman, 61, had the attack at his Bainbridge Island home Oct. 5. He had a three-month rehabilitation period and resumed his full schedule in early January.

During Spearman’s absence, his cases were distributed to the other seven judges.

Spearman was appointed by Gov. Gary Locke in 2004 to replace retiring Judge Terry McCauliffe, as the first African-American judge to serve on the Kitsap court.

He ran unopposed in the general election later that year, and was also unopposed in 2008 judicial primary.

His current term expires in 2012.

Superior Court judges earn $148,000 a year.

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof suffered a heart attack in 2005 but returned to work after two weeks.

Spearman, who had a private rehabilitation, received considerable feedback from the legal community during this time.

“I received a groundswell of calls and letters,” Spearman said last week. “It felt like medicine.”

Spearman is the featured speaker at the Kitsap County commemoration of Martin Luther King’s Birthday at 10 a.m. Jan. 19 in the Presidents’ Hall at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.