Searchlight in search of new justice of the peace

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Friday, May 29, 2009 | 4:27 p.m.

Among the applications the Clark County Commission will receive for Searchlight Justice of the Peace will be that of a retired California Edison power plant supervisor who has been learning the judicial job for the past 2 1/2 years.

Richard Hill, who has been the pro tem judge since fall 2006, said he will apply to fill the position left vacant when Justice of the Peace Wendell Turner died April 14 at the age of 72 after an apparent stroke.

“They are big shoes to fill,” Boulder City Justice of the Peace Victor Miller said.

The person selected by the County Commission will fill the job, which pays $61,380 a year, until a new judge is elected in November 2010. The applicants do not need to be lawyers nor do they have to live in Searchlight, population 750.

Candidates for the job in next year’s elections, however, must be Searchlight residents, though they do not need to be lawyers.

“Other than Harry Reid, I don’t think there are any out there — and he has plenty of things to keep him busy,” Miller said.

Turner, who was justice of the peace from 1995 until his death, was a retired Nevada Highway Patrol trooper. However, Turner received training from the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada, Reno, Miller said. “He did an excellent job as a jurist,” he said.

Hill said his training so far has been under the tutelage of Turner, who asked him to learn the job so he could fill in as pro tem.

Hill has been attending all of the Searchlight Justice Court sessions — which occur on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every other week — since fall 2006 to observe and receive training from Turner. He filled in for Turner when the judge was out sick or on vacation. He’s not afraid to ask the court clerks or attorneys for help when he needs it, Hill said.

“I have training wheels,” he said. “It’s not that difficult to be a pro tem if you’re willing to ask for help.”

Hill said he had hoped the County Commission would just appoint him to fill Turner’s shoes until next year’s election, but it decided instead to open the application process up, which means someone from anywhere in the state could preside on the Searchlight bench for a year and a half.

“I’ve been here 29 years. I have a lot of goodwill in the community,” said Hill, who served on the Town Council and has been an emergency medical technician. “Someone coming in has about six months to get known in the community, and then there’s an election.”

In Searchlight, where 364 votes were cast in the last election for justice of the peace, knowledge of the community is more important than legal acumen, Hill said.

“I see the grandkids of people I know. They get in trouble,” Hill said. “You have a different sense about them. Not that you let them off, but you know them and have a sense of them. Having that kind of background can make a difference in a rural community.”

Hill said if he is not the commission’s choice for the bench, that would be OK. He said he will run for the job next year and would be available until then to fill in for whoever gets the job.