City’s first female judge to be sworn in

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.

Diana Hampton said she's prepared to be Henderson's first female judge.

That is, with the exception of her work clothes.

Hampton will be sworn in tonight as a newly elected Municipal Court judge wearing a borrowed robe. She ordered a robe but there is a backlog because of graduations, so she won't get it until she officially takes the bench July 5.

The ceremonies at the Henderson City Council mark quite a milestone for the 39-year-old Hampton. She grew up poor and without a dad, didn't graduate from high school and worked one year as topless dancer at Cheetahs in the early 1990s to launch her college education.

A graduate from law school only six years ago, Hampton said she never could have pictured herself as the city's first female judge. Her life experiences demonstrate the best advice she can give someone:

"Don't ever let anything stop you," she said.

The campaign revelations about her stint as a topless dancer, followed by her June 7 victory over Michael Miller by 176 votes generated national and international attention for Hampton. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in newspapers around the world and even on ESPN Radio. One political Web site asked whether she received all of her campaign donations in $1 bills.

Local television news and national programs such as "A Current Affair," "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show wanted to interview her. Hampton turned them all down, opting she said not to focus attention on herself.

"That was not what the race was about," Hampton said. "I didn't want to sensationalize anything. If any good had come out of it, and I could have helped people, I may have done it. But there are so many other people out there who have overcome adversity and have gone out and done great things in life. This is just a blip in the greater scheme."

Hampton said she understands that her past may follow her for the rest of her judicial career, but she said she doesn't mind. People talked about her past when she was a lawyer and when she worked the last three years as a Henderson prosecutor.

"It is a fact and out there and probably something I will always have to deal with, but it doesn't concern me," Hampton said. "This is where I am in life, and that was quite some time ago. You make a decision and you live with it. I have never been that way to waste energy on it. It is what it is and you accept it. I have moved on."

Hampton said she never thought voters would hold the revelations against her. She praised her opponent, Miller, for not making an issue of her past as a topless dancer, calling him a good man who handled the race beautifully and tactfully.

With the publicity her campaign and victory generated, Hampton said she received from phone calls and e-mails from people in Nevada, across the country and even from Korea and Denmark. Everyone who contacted her showed their support, Hampton said. No one said anything negative.

"It tugged at your heart strings," Hampton said. "It must made me feel right that I was running."

Hampton is elected to six years to a post that pays $109,497 a year. Municipal Court judges preside over misdemeanor trials dealing with such offenses as domestic battery, DUI and minor drug offenses.

Hampton admits there will be a learning curve but said she already has some ideas to implement. One is following a program in Las Vegas helping young drug offenders get their lives pointed in the right direction.