Nevada Judiciary

Judge Michael Memeo retiring after 15 years on the Elko bench

The Nevada Commission on Judicial Selection will accept applications from qualified Nevada attorneys until October 21, 2011, to fill the vacancy at the Fourth Judicial District Court that is the result of the resignation of Judge Michael Memeo, Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy M. Saitta announced.

Judge Memeo has served nearly 15 years as one of two judges on the District Court bench in Elko County in the northeastern corner of the state.  Judge Memeo was first elected to the Department One seat in 1996.  His resignation is effective November 1, 2011.

The second seat on the bench became vacant in August when District Judge Andrew Puccinelli, 58, died after a battle with cancer.  He had served in Department Two since being appointed in 2002.

Interviews for both vacancies will be conducted by the Commission on Judicial Selection on November 18, 2002.  Four attorneys applied for Judge Puccinelli’s seat.

The appointment process to fill Judge Memeo’s vacancy is open to all Nevada attorneys with 10 years of legal experience, two of those years in Nevada. 

Applications for the vacancy must be submitted to the Commission by 5 p.m. on October 21, 2011.  Applications must be submitted in hard copy to the Administrative Office of the Courts in Carson City.  The application for this vacancy is available on the Supreme Court website at http://nevadajudiciary.us/index.php/viewdocumentsandforms/func-startdown/7306/ .

The public will be able to view the applications, with the exceptions of medical records and personal identification information, on the Supreme Court website.  Also remaining confidential will be the letters of comment solicited about the candidates along with letters of reference to ensure the authors can be candid.

After all applications are submitted, the Commission will conduct background investigations and interview each of the candidates.  The Commission will then deliberate and nominate three finalists, whose names will be submitted to Governor Brian Sandoval for the appointment.

Interviews are scheduled for November 18, 2011, in Elko.

The appointed judges must run in the 2012 election and win to retain their seats until the term ends in January 2015.

As has been the rule since 2007, the Commission’s interviews will be open to the public.

After receiving the names of the three finalists for each vacancy, no time limit exists for the Governor to make his appointments.  However, if an appointment is not made within 30 days following submission of names by the Commission, the Governor may make no other appointments to public office.

The Commission on Judicial Selection is composed of seven permanent members – the Supreme Court Chief Justice, three non-attorneys appointed by the Governor and three attorneys appointed by the State Bar of Nevada.  Neither the Governor nor the Bar may appoint more than two permanent members from the same political party, and cannot appoint two members from the same county.

For District Court vacancies, two temporary members are appointed from the judicial district where the vacancy occurs – a non-attorney by the Governor and an attorney by the State Bar – bringing the Commission membership to nine.

For the current vacancies, Governor Sandoval has appointed former Elko Assemblyman John Carpenter, who served from 1987 until leaving office in 2010. He is a rancher, real estate broker and Elko businessman. The State Bar of Nevada has appointed Deputy Elko County Public Defender Andrew M Mierins as its temporary member.