District Attorney

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:10 a.m.

Five candidates, including three current deputy district attorneys, are battling to fill the shoes of retiring District Attorney Stewart Bell, who is running for a seat in District Court.

The most contested primary in the race has Republicans Abbi Silver and David Roger, both chief deputy district attorneys with more than 10 years of experience, facing off in September. Democratic candidates, Assistant District Attorney Michael Davidson and attorney Dawn Allysa Hooker, along with Independent American Joel F. Hansen, are also competing for the office.

Silver has worked as a prosecutor in the district attorney's office for more than 12 years, specializing in crimes against women and children, domestic violence and stalking. As chief deputy district attorney over the Special Victim's Unit, Silver personally prosecutes multiple cases a year and supervises a staff of 15 attorneys. She wrote a bill to strengthen Nevada's stalking laws and founded the nonprofit organization Stop the Violence.

Among Silver's many plans for improving the office include creating a major fraud unit, helping to improve the new Juvenile Unit/Child Abuse Division, working to better prosecute online child exploitation and victimization, expanding the Victim Witness Advocacy Center and speeding up the prosecution of gang-related crimes, she said.

Roger has served as chief deputy district attorney on the Major Violator's unit since 1987, handling capital murder cases, gang cases, repeat offenders and special assignments, including such high profile cases as the Ted Binion murder trial. Prior to his work with the district attorney's office, Roger spent a year as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Huffaker.

If elected, he plans to focus prosecutors on putting away repeat offenders, as "20 percent of the people are committing 80 percent of the crimes," Roger said. He also said he plans to establish a cyber-crime unit to prosecute the rising incidence of identity theft crimes.

As assistant district attorney, Davidson currently overseas all of the civil matters filed district attorney's office, including providing defense and advice to all county agencies. He worked in private practice as a criminal and civil attorney before joining the office as a chief administrator in 1998. Davidson also has experience as a small claims and juvenile court referee, a Supreme Court settlement judge and has volunteered in numerous community and legal organizations. If elected, he said he plans to continue to improve child support collection, the prosecution of identity theft and cyber crime and rehabilitation of juvenile violators.

Hooker did not respond to a request for information.

Hansen has practiced law in Las Vegas since 1978, having run his own law firm for the last eight years. As a trial attorney he has handled criminal, malpractice, insurance fraud, personal injury, constitutional law, construction law and businesses trials. Some of his goals if elected include working to stop the early release of violent criminals, supporting programs to teach local citizen's how to use firearms to protect themselves against criminals, instituting an "taxpayer advocate" office to ensure proper use of citizen dollars and prosecuting anyone illegally transporting nuclear waste through the county.