Estes, Pederson face off to fill new Third District judge's seat

Lyon and Churchill counties - combined as the Third Judicial District - will get the first new district judge's seat created for rural Nevada since 1992.

Growth in court cases spurred by a booming population encouraged the Legislature to add a third judge to the Third District.

For the same reasons, the Fifth Judicial District - Nye, Esmeralda and Mineral counties - will also fill a new judge's seat in the Nov. 7 election. The Fifth District is the last of Nevada's nine judicial districts to be served by only one district judge, said Bill Gang, spokesman for the state court system.

The last rural district judge's seat created in 1992 went to the Seventh District, mainly to handle appeals from the maximum security prison in Ely.

Two attorneys in Yerington are vying for the newest judge's seat that will serve Lyon and Churchill counties.

Either Lyon County District Attorney Robert Estes or Yerington attorney Wayne Pederson will join the district's sitting judges, Archie Blake based in Yerington and David Huff based in Fallon.

Estes and Pederson both bring varied careers to the campaign, both only pursuing the law once they reached their 30s.

Estes, 52, taught high school chemistry and physics from 1974 to 1977 in Melbourne, Australia, where he met Las Vegas natives who coaxed him to give Nevada a try. Estes became a chemistry teacher at Valley High School in Las Vegas before joining a law firm there. In 1990, the Baxter Springs, Kan., native once again sought the rural lifestyle.

He found it in the Lyon County District Attorney's office, first as a deputy DA, then chief deputy before assuming the district attorney's title in 1995.

"I was a small town kid growing up," Estes said. "At some time we look for big time excitement. I experienced that. When I got a little older, it was time to get back to the rural life. Yerington is Baxter Springs. The people are the same. They just have different names."

Pederson, 47, is a lifelong Yerington resident and graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno. Before he started law school at age 36, he served Mason Valley as a contractor and alfalfa farmer. He built the concession stand-restroom-announcing booth complexes for the baseball fields in Dayton and Silver Springs.

"I've dedicated my life to this area and I wanted to come back to continue my service here," Pederson said. "I feel comfortable in Yerington. I know all the people. They know everything about me, the good, the bad, the indifferent."

Both see the position of district judge as the pinnacle of the legal profession. Estes and Pederson equally dismiss thoughts that the Nevada Attorney General or Nevada Supreme Court are loftier posts.

"To me, being a district court judge is the ultimate," Estes said. "In district court, you still deal with people. It's more dynamic."

Pederson said, "it would be the pinnacle of my profession. You have to have the right character. You can't be predisposed to any one particular thing. A district court judge has unfathomable power and to do that you have to have a real handle on bias."

Pederson in his private practice has the challenge of having to out poll a district attorney. Pederson doesn't let the DA's title discourage him.

"He has a few more years as an attorney but that doesn't necessarily equate to experience," Pederson said. "For every civil case he lays down, I lay down 50. I match him one for one on criminal cases."

Estes said he has taken trial advocacy courses for civil attorneys and prosecutors and he has testified before the Nevada Legislator, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal court and the Nevada Supreme Court.

"I've got a great deal of experience in trial work, civil and criminal, public and private," Estes said. "Most people get an idea of what a prosecutor is from TV and movies. A prosecutor is not charged with convicting anyone. We're charged with finding the truth. Before you even get to trail, you go through a very vigorous search for truth."

Estes has never asked for the death penalty but he doesn't think he's soft on crime. He cited an FBI study claiming that 80 percent of crime is committed by 20 percent of the criminals.

"I believe violent criminals should be incarcerated as long as the law allows," Estes said. "That's what I want to do. If we can get that 20 percent in prison, crime will go down 80 percent."

Pederson said a judge's duty go far beyond the courtroom. He cited the cooperation of judges, juvenile probation officers and county manages in five counties to build the Western Nevada Regional Youth Center in Silver Springs.

"In a fast-growing, dynamic county, a judge has to or should get involved in guiding what we need," Pederson said. "How different counties can work together to share costs and share combined knowledge. A judge has to reflect the moral and ethical backbone of the community. I think I would serve it better."