Lyon district attorney becomes new judge in Third District

Lyon County District Attorney Robert Estes was elected to the newly created judgeship for the Third Judicial District covering Lyon and Churchill counties.

Estes easily out tallied Yerington attorney Wayne Pederson in both counties. Combined, Estes collected 10,841 votes (55.5 percent) with Pederson scoring 7,706 votes (39.4 percent).

Lyon County voters favored Estes slightly more than Churchill. Estes won 57.6 percent of the Lyon vote (6,143 votes) and 53 percent of Churchill's vote (4,698 votes).

Pederson won 4,523 votes (42.4 percent) in Lyon and 3,183 votes (35.9 percent) in Churchill.

"He had some good people in his corner," Pederson said. "I think Shakespeare said, as with most adversaries in law, we strive mightily and then eat and drink as friends. We will be dining together this Saturday to start healing what feelings may have been hurt. It was a clean, well-fought race."

"He matches my sentiment," Estes said.

Estes said supporters for him and Pederson were a bit more "shrill" in their campaigning than the candidates themselves. The dinner is meant to bring normalcy back to their professional relations.

"We decided if we sat down and people see us as we were before the campaign, people will see things are back to normal," Estes said.

Starting Jan. 2, Estes will be the third district judge in the two-county district, joining Judges Archie Blake and David Huff. Estes will be based in Yerington but all three judges alternate between Yerington and Fallon as needed.

The third judge's seat was created by the 1999 Legislature to meet the increase in cases in the fast-growing counties due east of Carson City.

Estes said he will follow the course set by Blake and Huff.

"Right now, we have two judges I respect a great deal," Estes said. "There's not really a whole lot that needs to be changed. It's not quite the dog-eat-dog world people see in larger jurisdictions."

Estes doesn't foresee any transition problems going from prosecutor to judge. His concept of being a district attorney is not to seek a conviction but to seek the truth - similar to a judge's goal.

A former district attorney gathered only 134 more votes than a first-time, non-attorney candidate to become the new Dayton Township justice of the peace.

Former Lyon County District Attorney William Rogers won with 51.4 percent of the vote. Rogers garnered 2,406 votes and metallurgical engineer John Bennetts collected 2,272 votes, or 48.6 percent.

"I've been calling it my mandate," Rogers kidded. "I didn't know anything about the nail-biter because I was out picking up campaign signs."

Rogers, a Carson City attorney in private practice, spent election night along Highway 50 picking up signs starting in Silver Springs and heading west. He promised to have all signs down before today.

Rogers credited Bennetts' dedication to getting known in the community.

"My opponent is the most tenacious campaigner I have ever seen in anybody," Rogers said.

Bennetts confirmed that he walked the streets nearly every day since the primary to become known to voters.

"I really did pound the pavement," Bennetts said. "I wore holes into two pairs of wing tips."

On Jan. 2, Rogers becomes the first new justice of the peace in Dayton in two decades. Ed Johnson retired from the bench.

It was 2:30 a.m. Wednesday before Lyon County had a final vote tally until, about two-and-half hours later than Clerk/Treasurer Nikki Bryan had expected.

The large number of absentee ballots slowed the process as did the late arrival of the last precinct. Ballots from Silver Springs didn't arrive in Yerington until nearly midnight, Bryan said.