LOVELOCK - Pershing County District Attorney Jim Shirley and Lovelock attorney Todd Plimpton, in a race to replace long-time Sixth Judicial Court Judge Richard Wagner, were the last candidates to face the crowd during the Oct. 21 candidate forum scheduled just before the start of early voting.
A third candidate for the bench, Humboldt County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kevin Pasquale, was eliminated in the June 10 primary election. Candidate forum moderator and outspoken Lovelock attorney Steve Evenson voiced his theories as to why Pasquale was voted out of the race.
"Having obviously an interest in this election because I'm a private practice attorney, I was very surprised when the third candidate from Humboldt County was eliminated," he said. "There were two reasons that I figured out - the extremely low voter turn-out in Humboldt County and he (Pasquale) was the public face of the civil forfeiture program."
Evenson was referring to controversial and now notorious incidents involving cash seizures from subjects considered potential drug smugglers by Humboldt County sheriff's deputies.
Pasquale's elimination "allowed us to keep a district court judge in Lovelock and that is a huge deal for Pershing County," Evenson said. "If Al Gore had won his home state of Tennessee in 2000, it would have been President Gore but don't feel you're under any pressure in answering these questions."
In their opening statements, both candidates summarized their legal experience and promised the crowd to be good public servants for the district court's entire tri-county area. Due to a judicial candidate code of ethics, neither candidate could address specific issues they might litigate while sitting on the bench.
Shirley touted the bad check, child support and public guardianship programs that were implemented and/or expanded during his 12 years as the Pershing County District Attorney.
"We developed several impactful programs that have helped this community. Our bad check program, which I started within the first 90 days of my first term, has tremendously benefited our businesses. We've decreased the recidivism rate and we've helped people learn to balance their check books."
In response to the question of improving the local judicial system, Shirley said there's a need for increased access to the judicial system, greater conflict resolution and parental education for broken families going through contested divorces.
"We have a situation in our country where people need access to justice," he explained. "Often, in the civil arena, they have a hard time getting that access because they don't have the financial resources to do so. We really need to figure out ways to better allow people to get access to justice."
Between 80 and 90 percent of district court cases filed are family law cases, meaning parental education and training programs should be employed to help families going through divorce, according to Shirley.
"We need to do a better job of dealing with those cases and finding programs to help families," he said.
"The trouble is when people are divorcing, there's no good guide book for them. They start using the child as a pawn to hurt the other spouse. We think need to do a better at keeping the children out of the middle of that mix."
Plimpton responded the legal system is "crushing our kids" and district court resources should be reorganized to provide greater protection for children involved in civil cases. More than half of all civil cases are contested divorces involving children in emotional or sometimes threatening circumstances.
"I believe our kids should get the same priority that our criminal cases get," he said. "The right answer is how do we take the limited (court) resources and how do we make them more effective for our kids. I have spent 23 years representing parents and kids in these kind of cases."
Shirley and Plimpton were asked to name the "most important quality" for a district court judge.
"Passion, compassion, commitment. A district court judge has to be a doer, effective, know how to close the deal and make decisions," Plimpton replied. "You can't be arrogant as a judge - you have to be humble. I think its a work ethic and that's what you want in a judge."
Shirley said it takes a "plethora" of qualities to be a good judge including being a good listener with an ability to research the law, a compassion for people while remaining in compliance with the law.
"You should have the temperament to be a judge - you should be calm and hear people out but put your foot down when you need to," Shirley explained. "One quality is being ready to hear the case. You need to research and understand the law and apply it to the facts presented to you. You have to have some compassion for people. You have to think about them and what their circumstances are."
Local farmer Tom Moura requested input from Shirley and Plimpton on the potential legal storm brewing over surface versus underground water rights in the Humboldt River Basin and the state.
Evenson informed Moura and the rest of the crowd that judicial candidates cannot share personal opinions on legal matters they might later need to consider and rule on if elected to the district court bench.
Lovelock resident David Skelton attended the forum and said the judicial candidates would have "disqualified themselves" by addressing local issues. "You can't ask someone how they're going to rule on something that might come up. We want them to be fair and impartial."
He believes local voters are fortunate to have a choice between qualified, local judicial candidates.
"I don't see how we can go wrong with either candidate" Skelton explained. "Having the background, the knowledge, the experience from here, I see that as decidedly a plus and a bonus. I think we're really lucky to have two strong candidates from our county."
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