Neringa Venckienė (born 21 May 1971 in Kaunas) is a former Lithuanian judge and member of the Seimas of Lithuania.

In 2008–2009, Venckienė's brother Drąsius Kedys accused three men of sexually molesting his four-year old daughter. One of the men and the girl's aunt were murdered in October 2009. Kedys became the prime suspect but he was found dead in June 2010. The girl's custody was initially awarded to Venckienė. The courts later awarded the custody to the girl's mother. These court ruling caused a popular uproar in Lithuania and members of the public started a vigil guarding the house where the girl lived so that the police could not take her away. Armed riot police forcibly took away the girl on 17 May 2012. Few days later, charges were brought against Venckienė who resigned from her job as a judge. She became leader of the new The Way of Courage political party and was elected to the Seimas in the October 2012 elections. In April 2013, the Seimas voted to remove Venckienė's legal immunity and she fled to the United States seeking political asylum. In June 2014, Venckienė was impeached and her mandate was removed. In November 2019, she was extradited back to Lithuania, where she was released on bail and is tried for relative minor offenses. She was found guilty in 2021 and sentenced to 21 months in prison but released due to time already served.

Venckienė was born as Neringa Kedytė in Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1971.

In 1989, she graduated from Garliava 1st High School with high honors. From 1989 to 1995, she studied at the Law Faculty of Vilnius University. From 2005, she studied for her doctorate at Mykolas Romeris University.

From 1995 to 1999, Venckienė worked as a jurist at the Lithuanian University of Agriculture (now Aleksandras Stulginskis University). Between 1999 and 2007 she worked as a Kaunas District Court judge and served as an appeal judge at Kaunas Regional Court from 2007 to 2012.

In March 2011, Venskienė was reprimanded by the Judicial Discipline and Ethics Commission because "Venckienė in her actions and statements in the public media violated Judges etiquette code of conduct regarding respecting a person, loyalty to the country, unbiasedness, selflessness, respect and example principles".^[13]

On 23 May 2012, few days after the police forcibly removed her niece from the house in Garliava, six charges were brought against Venckienė, including not following a court order, assault, disrespecting the court.^[14] According to the Constitution of Lithuania, judges cannot be arrested or tried without the approval by the parliament. In June 2012, Venckienė resigned her judgeship after the parliament voted to remove her legal immunity.^[15]

Venckienė became the face of the new The Way of Courage political party. The goals include changes in the justice system, the establishment of trial by jury, and stricter punishments for corruption, rape and pedophilia.^[16] According to "Vilmorus" polls, Venckienė became one of the top ten politicians in the country. Media speculated about her run for the presidency in 2014, challenging Dalia Grybauskaitė.^[17] In October 2012, Venckienė and six of her supporters were elected to the Parliament of Lithuania. She was selected as the chairwoman of The Way of Courage faction.^[18]

The parliament approved the prosecutors' request to remove Venckienė's legal immunity on 9 April 2013. She fled to the United States on the day of the removal of her immunity.^[19] In June 2014, Venckienė was impeached and her mandate removed. She was the first person to be impeached without being present or legally informed about the proceedings. Gintaras Aleknonis, who was supposed to take Venckienė's place in parliament, refused to be sworn in.^[20]

In 2015, the Lithuanian authorities requested the extradition of Venckienė back to Lithuania. At the time she faced 39 criminal charges, including illegal surveillance, disrespecting the national anthem, and public statements to infringe on sovereignty of Lithuania. Additional charges were brought against Venckienė, including an attempt to overthrow the government, spying, and a threat to the state. These charges were later dropped.^[21]

In February 2018, Venckienė was arrested in Chicago and detained in Chicago's federal prison.^[22] On 18 April 2018, Venckienė, giving an interview to Associated Press stated that "they have no reason to have me back but to kill me".^[23] American Judge Virginia Kendall refused to block Venckienė's extradition.^[24] She was extradited to Lithuania in November 2019.^[25]

In Lithuania, she was released on a 10,000 euro bail and faces trial for relatively minor offences of hitting a person, refusing to obey a court order, and resisting a police officer.^[26] In July 2021, Venckienė was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison. However, she was released as time already served under arrest exceeded the sentence.^[27] She was also ordered to pay 6,800 euros to the Lithuanian government for the extradition expenses as well as 6,300 euros to Stankūnaitė and 3,500 euros to two other individuals.^[27] Venckienė lost her case in the appeals court in January 2022 and appealed further to the Supreme Court of Lithuania in May 2022.^[28]

On 25 June 2018, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith from New Jersey introduced a private bill in the House of Representatives "for the relief of Judge Neringa Venckienė, who the Government of Lithuania seeks on charges related to her pursuit of justice against Lithuanian public officials accused of sexually molesting her young niece".^[29] On 27 June, Congressman Randy Hultgren introduced an identical bill. Both bills are similarly short titled: "Give Judge Venckienė Her Day In Court Act".^[30]

On 27 September, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission held a hearing titled: "Politically Motivated (In)Justice – The Extradition Case of Judge Venckienė".^[31] The commission is independent U.S. government agency which was created 1975 to monitor Human Rights Violations and to encourage compliance with the Helsinki Final Act. The Government of Lithuania decided not to participate in the hearing.

On 2 February 2019, Rep. Smith re-introduced the "Give Judge Venckienė Her Day In Court Act" in the 116th Congress of the United States.^[32] In May 2020, after a classified video of the 2012 police operation surfaced – showing violence being used by police officers and Stankunaitė against the girl and Venckienė, Rep. Smith released a statement condemning Lithuania's actions and "[calling] on the Lithuanian government to cease the prosecution of Judge Venckienė".^[33]

• Drasius' Hope To Save The Girl (Drąsiaus viltis – išgelbėti mergaitę) (2011), 328 pages.
• The Way of Courage (Drąsos keliu) (2012), 128 pages.