Togliatti, Schaefer battle to become justice of the peace

Jace Radke

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:05 p.m.

Two lawyers will face off for the Department 7 Justice of the Peace post in the Nov. 3 general election.

Jennifer Togliatti, a deputy district attorney, is the front-runner in the race after capturing almost 43 percent of the vote in the Sept. 1 primary, but Mike Schaefer said he thinks he can overtake his opponent. Schaefer, a Las Vegas attorney, advanced from the five-candidate primary with 19 percent of the vote.

"We did a pretty good job considering that I couldn't campaign until the day of the election," Schaefer said. "We have good signage and expect an increase in votes during the general election."

Schaefer, 60, had been running his campaign while on house arrest after being convicted of misdemeanor charges of pepper-spraying one of his neighbors and shoving another. He was released from house arrest on the day of the primary election.

Schaefer also has come under fire for posting signs that emulate public administrator Jared Schafer's distinctive brown and orange signs. Schaefer dismisses the similar signs as good marketing and says he wants to bring 34 years of experience to the Department 7 bench.

Togliatti, 31, graduated from UNLV and California Western School of Law. She is currently assigned to the Crimes Against Women and Children Unit, for which she prosecutes sexual-assault cases, and has been with the district attorney's office for five years.

Togliatti advocates restructuring the justice courts to balance caseloads for better efficiency.

"Sometimes judges will have 30 cases in a day and all the defendants have to be there at 9 a.m.," Togliatti said. "I look forward to balancing the workload evenly throughout the day so that litigants have a realistic time frame for their court appearance."

Justice courts handle misdemeanor and traffic cases, felony arraignments and preliminary hearings, minor civil matters, temporary protective orders and evictions.