District Attorney files for full term

YERINGTON -- Appointed to the position 16 months ago, Lyon County District Attorney Leon Aberasturi is seeking election to a full four-year term.

He was selected by county commissioners in January 2001 to fill the vacancy created when District Attorney Robert Estes was elected District Court judge. Aberasturi is the only candidate to file for the position so far.

"The people of Lyon County will get the benefits of my two years experience in the position. I have assembled a good staff and would like to keep this team together," Aberasturi said. "I think I have shown I can handle the position and would like to continue what we have been doing.

"We have taken a hard stand and focused on the more violent crimes, such as sexual assaults and child abuse, while fully supporting the district judges and their Drug Court program."

Aberasturi said the alternative sentencing courts are a step in the right direction to finding options to relieving the burdens on prisons already overcrowded with violent offenders.

He directed the county's special use permit revocation hearing against Advanced Specialty Gases and was the county's lead prosecutor in the Erin Kuhn Brown murder case. His staff includes Robert Auer, a long time employee of the state Attorney General's Office with considerable trial experience, and Chet Kafchinsky, who has death penalty trial experience included in his 20 years of practice.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Aberasturi was raised in New Jersey. He graduated from the University of Arizona with a double major in history and Russian language. Upon receiving his law degree from the University of Idaho, he was hired by Lyon County as a deputy district attorney in February 1994.

He served as deputy district attorney in Battle Mountain from April 1996 until his return to Lyon County in July 2000, when Estes appointed him a deputy district attorney.

Since his appointment to the head position, Aberasturi has reorganized Child Support Services, increasing the collection rates; promoted the bad check program, increasing the participation of local business owners; and established a positive working relationship with local advisory boards, attending meetings and holding educational workshops.

The Fernley resident is married and has three children.