Former Family Court judge wants to lose the ‘former’

By Brian Eckhouse (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Elected officials don’t normally leave a post and then return to it years later especially judges.

Clearly, former Family Court Judge Terrance Marren isn’t getting tips from the traditional political handbook.

Marren chose to leave the bench in 1998 and now wants back in. Such a story isn’t unheard of in politics; U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey decided to return to Congress in 2002, a couple of years after retiring.

But a judge? They tend to serve until they retire or lose a reelection bid.

If Marren wins a judicial seat in November, his journey will be even more unusual, considering he was Clark County’s first referee of domestic issues long before there was a Family Court. The founder of the Southern Nevada Domestic Violence Task Force spent three years handling practically all of the county’s domestic cases.

When county voters approved establishing the Family Court, Marren helped shape it as a first-term judge. In the mid-1990s, the Nevada Judicial Commission hand-slapped Marren for failing to resolve a few divorce cases fast enough, but the former judge who adjudicated several thousand cases each year says the reprimand didn’t figure into his decision to leave Family Court.

It was the temptation of living closer to his then-home of Logandale, he said, that lured him to Mesquite in 1998 as its first full-time city attorney.

Marren, 59, retired from Mesquite in June 2005, but soon rejoined the judicial branch as an appointed senior judge. The appeal of a higher salary and a return to Family Court a place he calls “home” is prompting his candidacy.

Don’t expect the 1998 Judge Marren to return. Marren believes his late 1990s divorce and a greater appreciation for an expedited judicial process have modified his perspective.

“Someone (in court) asked me in 1986 if I was divorced. I found it humorous,” Marren said. “Now, I can understand what the people go through.”

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Residents interested in applying for judgeships on the county and state levels have until Jan. 18 to file. All county and state seats are open at the close of the year.

Judge Lee Gates announced he would not seek reelection. Deputy Secretary of State Chris Lee is seeking a new seat on the North Las Vegas Township Justice Court; he is a former deputy district attorney.

Expect more comings and goings especially with six seats being added to District Court, five of which will be based in Family Court.

One unanticipated departure is on the Las Vegas Municipal Court: the death of Judge Toy R. Gregory, 74, on Jan. 3. He died nearly a week after suffering a heart attack.

City officials could take nearly a month to decide how to replace him permanently, a spokeswoman said.

Gregory’s death, however, didn’t create a vacancy on the bench. Municipal Court has a pool of alternate judges to tap on an interim basis.

Under statute, the Las Vegas City Council has about a month to appoint a successor. Whoever is chosen will fill out Gregory’s term, which is to end in 2009.

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The strange case of William Sites who confessed to killing his wife but is now seeking to withdraw his plea is scheduled to return to District Court on Tuesday. Judge Valorie Vega could decide that day whether to grant his request.

Sites was arrested in November 2006 and charged with murder, though the body of his wife, Jan Sites, was never found.

Jan Sites’ daughter, Michelle Perkins, hopes to be present to urge the judge to deny the plea withdrawal.

Perkins was adopted at birth and didn’t know her mother growing up. The two reconnected a few years ago via telephone and correspondence. The disappearance and presumed death of her biological mother prompted Jan Sites’ other family members to reconnect with Perkins, she said.