District Court Department 20

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Eight seats are contested in District Court election, with several candidates competing for the open seats created by two new departments.

Valoria J. Vega, Ron D. Parraguirre, Joseph Bonaventure, Lee Gates, Jennifer Togliatti, Michael Douglas, Michelle Leavitt, Mark Ralph Denton, Sally Loehrer, John S. McGroarty, Michael A. Cherry, Nancy M. Saitta and Allan R. Earl are all running unopposed for re-election.

Department 20

Six candidates are grappling for the new District Court, Department 20, seat: Gayle Beck-Nathan, Mathew Paul Harter, Aurora Maskall, Larry McCullough, Sandy Smagac and David Wall.

Beck-Nathan worked as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society in Happauge, N.Y., for five years before coming to Nevada as a private attorney in 1993. She currently serves as a justice of the peace in North Las Vegas Justice Court and was a hearing master for two years.

Harter has worked as a sole practitioner in his own office since 1995, having previously served as a law clerk for Family Court Judge Gerald W. Hardcastle and for his father law office. A candidate for Family Court in 2000, Harter also contracts with the Clark County public defenders office, representing clients in mental commitment hearings and parole revocations.

Before moving to Las Vegas in 1997, Maskall worked as an independent legal consultant for several associations in Washington in the areas of telecommunications and intellectual property law. She clerked for Family Court Judge Cynthia Dianne Steel before moving to the law firm of Dickerson, Dickerson, Consul and Pocker, where she has worked in civil litigation, criminal defense, transactional matters, family law, contract negotiation, wills and trusts.

McCullough has practiced both civil and criminal law in Nevada for 20 years. In that time he has served as general counsel for the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and has represented other law enforcement organizations such as the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs, the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association and the Clark County School District Police Officers Association.

Smagac is a partner in the firm of Alverson, Taylor, Mortenson, Nelson and Sanders, where she has worked since graduation from law school in 1994. She has handled several complex civil cases, including medical malpractice defense, personal injury, products liability and employment law. She has defended manufacturers in cases involving fen-phen, ephedra and PPA, a chemical in some cold and cough syrups that was taken off the market by the Food and Drug Administration.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David T. Wall has worked for 16 years in Las Vegas in both civil and criminal matters. His criminal trial experience includes both private and public sector defense work. He has also worked with the Trial by Peers juvenile criminal intervention program and the Las Vegas Founders Club.