Longtime attorneys jockey for position

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

Voters will not have an easy time of it when they head into the polls and make their choices in the justice of the peace races.

Experienced attorneys are running in both the Las Vegas Township and North Las Vegas justice court races.

Former Clark County prosecutor George Assad, 48, is running against Deputy Attorney General Ann Zimmerman, 36, in the Las Vegas Township race.

Zimmerman received 41 percent of the votes cast during September's primary compared to Assad's 29 percent.

Assad has been in private practice since 1989, specializing in personal injury and criminal defense cases. Zimmerman worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Missouri before joining the attorney general's office in 1997.

In North Las Vegas, Natalie Tyrrell, 36, is running against Mike Schaefer, 62.

Tyrrell is a staff attorney for the city of Las Vegas Senior Citizens Law Project. She has worked as a temporary judge in Henderson Municipal Court and North Las Vegas Justice Court in addition to being an alternate judge for the municipal court in North Las Vegas.

Schaefer is a former San Diego City Council member and city prosecutor who moved to Nevada in 1973. He has been a lawyer since 1963.

In Henderson, voters only have to make up their minds in one of two races. Department 1 Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr retained his seat when he ran unopposed during the primary, but his name must remain on the general election ticket according to state law.

The Department 2 position opened up when Justice of the Peace Kent Dawson was nominated for a position on the U.S. District Court by President Clinton. Those running for Dawson's old seat are Matthew Dushoff, John Eccles, Stephen George and Richard Sipan.

The new judgeships were created by the Clark County Commission because of a burgeoning caseload. Two years ago, justices of the peace heard 8,000 cases a year and now they hear about 15,000.

Justices of the peace, who serve six-year terms and earn $99,000 a year, preside over everything from misdemeanor crime and traffic matters to small claim suits and landlord/tenant disputes. They preside over initial arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony criminal cases.