Battle for vacant Municipal Court seat attracts six

Bill Gang

Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 12:49 p.m.

While the race for Las Vegas mayor has drawn the public and media interest, it is the contest for the vacant seat in Las Vegas Municipal Court Department 4 that has cluttered the most intersections in the city with signs.

Six candidates are seeking the post vacated when incumbent Valorie Vega was appointed earlier this year to a judgeship in District Court.

The goal at this point is name recognition, since only one of the six -- Las Vegas attorney Nicholas Del Vecchio -- has had any widespread public exposure. And Del Vecchio's recognition comes mainly from having lost nine elections for judgeships during the last decade.

Four of the six candidates launched vigorous sign campaigns, led by private attorney Bert Brown's mustard yellow signs with, appropriately, brown lettering. There are still more of those signs than for any other candidate.

Deputy District Attorney Craig Hendricks' signs, sporting his picture, showed up a few days later. Those were followed by signs from former Las Vegas deputy city attorneys Jessie Walsh and Tony Liker. Liker is now a private defense lawyer and Walsh is a deputy public defender.

Walsh's latest signs carry her picture, letting voters know that she is the only woman in the race.

Liker's signs tout him as "Stanford smart, NFL tough," although his National Football League career as a seventh-round draftee didn't pan out and he attended Stanford University for only two years of undergraduate work. He graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law.

There are only a smattering of signs for Del Vecchio, although he has said that he hopes the name recognition from earlier ballot appearances and his persistence will elevate him to victory against the group of first-time candidates.

Also running in the pack for the post that pays $91,084 annually is Ron Barron, 59, a veteran attorney and alternate Municipal Court judge since 1993. He is emphasizing his experience as a former prosecutor and his varied practice as an attorney in California, Hawaii and Nevada since 1971.

Brown, who is no relation to current Municipal Judge Seymore Brown, also is touting his judicial experience as an alternate Justice Court judge since 1993 in Las Vegas Township and his tenure as a law clerk to District Judge Jack Lehman in 1988-89.

Brown, who turned 37 on Monday, has been a member of the Governor's Commission on Substance Abuse since 1993 and a board member of the Nevada Treatment Center since 1990.

He said his campaign is based in part on "a new and educated awareness of the substance abuse-related crimes, like DUI and spousal abuse, that plague our city and crowd our courtrooms."

Brown is a native Las Vegan and a member of a pioneer Las Vegas family that includes his grandfather, B. Mahlon Brown, a state senator for 26 years, and his father, B. Mahlon Brown III, a former justice of the peace and U.S. attorney for Nevada.

Hendricks, 34, a deputy district attorney since 1991, is emphasizing his courtroom experience in mailers and radio ads that also detail endorsements from current District Attorney Stewart Bell and former District Attorney Rex Bell.

Hendricks said he also is endorsed by the Southern Nevada Labor Council, the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association and firefighter organizations and he shares an endorsement from Hispanics in Politics with Brown.

Also a native Las Vegan, Hendricks has pledged that if elected he would focus on victims' rights, especially in domestic violence cases, and hand down "the most severe punishments" for drunken driving and in cases involving violence.

Walsh, 40, who became a deputy public defender in December after three years in private practice and two years as a Las Vegas city prosecutor, also has worked as a regional representative for former Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich and as a regional aide for former Sen. Paul Laxalt.

She has pledged that if elected she would provide "fairness for all, regardless of one's financial or social resources."

"My life and work experiences have enabled me to work closely with a wide range of people," she said. "I am deeply committed to community service, and my record reflects that."

Liker, 34, said his campaign is based on "fairness" and he said he will be "a judge who listens."

Liker was a deputy district attorney in Nye County after becoming a Nevada lawyer in 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for Esmeralda County district attorney in 1994. He moved to Las Vegas and served as a prosecutor for more than three years, handling a variety of misdemeanor and traffic cases.

Since then he has been a private attorney specializing in criminal defense.

Del Vecchio, 42, also was a deputy Nye County district attorney before coming to Las Vegas to open a private practice that emphasizes family law. As part of his practice, he has been a court-appointed lawyer representing indigent fathers in paternity cases.

If elected, he said, he will owe no favors to any attorneys appearing before him because he is financing the campaign himself.

While there is a crowd in the Department 4 race, three incumbent Las Vegas Municipal Court judges have free rides in this year's elections, including recently appointed Department 3 Judge Michelle Fitzpatrick, the daughter of Nevada Supreme Court Justice Myron Leavitt.

Longtime Municipal Judges Toy Gregory and Ron Parraguirre fill out the ballot with no opposition.