AUGUST 2006

THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGES

THEY JOINED THE NAVY TO SEE THE WORLD:  LATER ARCHIE BLAKE, DAVID HUFF AND ROBERT ESTES BECAME THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGES

BY PATTY CAFFERATA, ESQ.

 Third Judicial District Court judges Archie Blake*, David Huff and Robert Estes all have distinctly different backgrounds but still have some key experiences in common.  All three men served active duty in the Navy, and all three men spent time overseas as a result.  Each praises the positive influence that Senior Judge Mario Recanzone had on his legal career.  And each proudly displays his Rotary International plaque in his chambers. 

JUDGE ARCHIE BLAKE

 Before serving as a district court judge, Blake’s legal experience of a lifetime took place during his second year at law school.  He and 32 other students participated in the Notre Dame Law School’s program in London, England.  The curriculum was U.S.-based with an international business flavor.  During this time, Blake learned that the law is not solely defined by the way in which it is practiced and applied in the United States.

England took Blake a long way from his native Ontario, Ore., where he was born in 1943, but it did bring him closer to his English ancestry.  Both his father and mother have English roots.  Blake’s late father Delbert served as a Marine during World War II and went on to teach machine engineering at Oregon Technical Institute.  Later, he taught safety rules to workers on the Alaskan Pipeline.  Blake’s mother Joyce Baxter Blake has been a homemaker, a real estate agent and an employee of the Alaska State Welfare Division.  She now lives in Oregon close to the home of Blake’s sister Erlene, a rancher who raises goats and other animals.

Blake graduated from Klamath Falls Oregon High School in 1961.  He spent a year at the Southern Oregon College in Ashland, and met his wife, Georgi Newell, during his freshman year.  They were married in a Presbyterian Church in Roseburg, Ore., in September 1962.  In 1963 Blake joined the Navy and served for five years as an electronics technician in P2V and P3A airplanes.  During his time in the armed services he flew to such far-flung regions as Vietnam, Japan, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.  After leaving the military, he returned to Southern Oregon College where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 1970.

The Blakes moved to Nevada in June 1970 so Blake could attend the University of Nevada Reno.  During this time, he held a graduate assistant position and Georgi taught school in Carson City. Blake received his master’s degree in economics in 1972.  He spent the next three years (1971-1974) working for the Nevada Employment Security Department as a research economist.  He soon decided he didn’t enjoy being a “numbers guy,” and decided on a career change.  In 1977 he graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.  

Returning to Carson City after graduation, he took the Nevada bar examination and went to work for the Public Utilities Commission as an in-house attorney for one-and-a-half-years.  He went on to become the Lyon County assistant district attorney and Yerington city attorney.  He also held a private practice from 1979-1988.  When a new judgeship was created in the Third Judicial District Court, Assemblyman Joe Dini and District Court Judge Mario Recanzone encouraged him to apply.  Blake admired both men and took their advice.  He and nine other lawyers applied to a judicial committee which made its recommendation to then Governor Dick Bryan.  Blake was appointed and took the bench in January 1988.  He continued in that position, running unopposed in 1988, 1990, 1996 and 2002.  In 1996, Blake received a master’s degree in judicial studies and has completed all of the course work for a doctorate in judicial studies.

 In addition to his regular duties, Blake acts as the Drug Court Judge.  The court is designed for heavy drug users with multiple felonies.  Drug traffickers and those with violent backgrounds are not eligible for the program.  Its purpose is to reduce jail or prison time for repeat drug offenders. Since the program’s inception in September 2001, about 500 people have completed the program and about 200 are currently in Blake’s Drug Court.  All of the counties contribute staff, clerks and sheriff’s deputies to work for the program.  Blake’s Judicial assistant Bea McMinn holds the position of Drug Court Coordinator.  Having joined his staff while he was still in private practice, McMinn has worked with Judge Blake for twenty-two years. 

Every other Monday afternoon Blake sits on the bench in Yerington and Hawthorne (Mineral County), and on alternating Mondays he presides in Minden/Gardnerville (Douglas County) in the mornings and Carson City in the afternoons.  That means his average round-trip commute is about 120 miles.  Fortunately, he has a four-wheel drive vehicle for when the weather gets rough! 

According to Blake, the most unusual case he ever decided was a divorce case.  The major point of contention was the custody of the couple’s small black dog.  He wrote an order that included dog support for the custodial “parent” and a visitation schedule that included holidays and weekends.                      

On the subject of attorneys, he says he is impressed with lawyers who are both prepared and forthright.  His pet peeve is an attorney who is not prepared or who says, “But Judge, in (blank) County, we do it this way.” 

Blake and his wife, who retired in 2004 after teaching elementary school in the Lyon County School District for 30 years, now spend much of their free time together.  They are often on Blake’s motorcycle or their sailboat.  The couple also enjoys walking, hiking, running and attending services at the Smith Valley Methodist Church.  While often in each other’s company, their paths do diverge slightly in the arena of politics; Blake is a democrat, while Georgi Blake is a republican.

The Blakes have one daughter, named Jessica.  Evidence of Blake’s pride in Jessica’s accomplishments is proudly on display in his Yerington chambers.  One entire wall is devoted to her athletic prowess.  She was the 1995 Nevada State Golf Champion in her division, an all-division basketball player, all-division softball player and Outstanding Woman Athlete for two years at Yerington High School.  She earned a golf scholarship to Western Carolina University and graduated with a major in sports management.  She went on to receive her MBA and is currently, an assistant golf pro in Tucson, Arizona.  She is to be married to another golf professional this month.

On his retirement after 18 years on the bench, Blake believes that the best thing about being a judge is the knowledge that you can make a difference.  He says he found no drawbacks attached to being a judge in the rural counties.  

*Archie Blake retired in February and is currently a Senior Judge; on April 18, 2006, Wayne Pederson was appointed to fill the vacancy. 

JUDGE DAVID HUFF

 The youngest of 10 children, Judge David Huff was born in Mason City, Iowa.  His father Lee Huff worked at several professions, including farmer, plumber and soldier (he served in the Army in France during World War I).  Lee passed away when Huff was only in the fourth grade leaving his children to be raised by his mother, Lillian Stewart Huff.  Judge Huff’s three surviving siblings are mostly retired, but his brother Clifford continues to operate his own bakery in Iowa. 

Huff was the first member of his family to graduate from college. He studied at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1961.  In his senior year, after receiving a notice to report for a draft physical, he decided to go to law school.  He was granted a 2-S draft deferment during his time in law school and graduated in 1965 from the University of Iowa College of Law with a Juris Doctor degree.  His favorite course in law school was evidence, taught by Mason Ladd, the Dean of the Law School.  His favorite professor was Jeffrey O’Connell, who taught torts and family law.

Following graduation Huff was commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Navy.  He spent 20 years in the Judge Advocate Generals Corps (JAG) handling federal tort claims, court-martial cases, and other discipline matters.  Approximately 600 attorneys serve in the Navy, where they are assigned to defend or prosecute various serious crimes.  In 1966 and 1967, Huff was stationed in Saigon, Vietnam as the number two lawyer out of three on the staff of the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces. 

Huff met his wife, Cecilia Frowiss, while he was stationed in Alameda, California.  She was visiting her uncle, a Naval Captain, at the time.  Their wedding took place in an Alameda Methodist Church in 1968.  Cecilia Huff is a retired title officer who remains active in the Fallon community.  She is a current member, and former Chair, of the Churchill Arts Board of Directors.

The Huffs moved to Fallon, Nev. in 1982, and Huff retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in 1986.  Anticipating that he would retire in Nevada, he took the Nevada Bar examination in 1985.  Huff is also licensed in California and Iowa.   Before he was elected judge, his private practice was based in Fallon, but he also appeared frequently in Lyon, Mineral, and Nye counties.  While in practice, he handled civil matters (excluding bankruptcy), and represented criminal defendants both as a retained and appointed counsel.  He served as defense attorney in jury trials involving charges that ranged from sexual assault and drug possession and use to larceny and other offenses.

Huff did not always aspire to the bench.  But when Mario Recanzone announced his retirement in 1996, Huff’s friends and fellow attorneys encouraged him to run.  Norm Robison, a senior district court judge from the Ninth Judicial District Court in Douglas County, Nevada, ran against Huff in that election.  Huff carried Churchill County by more than 900 votes and Robison won Lyon County by about 300 votes.  Huff won the election by 839 votes and was unopposed for reelection in 2002.

Huff has attended various naval schools including the Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island. He is currently working on his masters degree in judicial studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.  He has to complete one more course and write his thesis before obtaining that degree.  He is considering using the subject of capital punishment in Nevada as a subject for that thesis.

Huff’s chambers are in Fallon, where visitors will find a large and impressive photograph of the judge standing before the bench in the Churchill County Law Enforcement Building.  In addition to his two or three journeys per week to Yerington, Huff also drives to other districts as a visiting judge. Occasionally, he encounters snow on the road but has never let weather conditions prevent him from his obligations.

In their leisure time, Huff and Cecilia enjoy traveling.  Among their favorite destinations are Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Portland and New Orleans. They are hoping to visit Europe in the near future.  Huff also likes to sail.  He even taught sailing for several years on San Francisco Bay. In addition to Rotary, Huff is a member of the Elks’ lodge and a member of the Churchill Arts Council.  He is a registered democrat as were his parents.  However, he says he scrutinizes the qualifications of each individual candidate and does not vote a straight ticket. 

Huff is impressed with attorneys who are punctual, prepared and candid.  He believes that the first impression an attorney makes can affect his reputation and that reputation is important.  In his experience, if at the outset an attorney shows himself to be sloppy with research and the drafting of pleadings or if he is not candid with the court, then all future dealings with that attorney will be given extra scrutiny.  Huff’s pet peeve is with lawyers who fail to read applicable statutes and then file pleadings that do not comply with those statutes.

Huff enjoys coming to work every day and being among the pleasant people with whom he works.  On the other hand, he feels that too much court time is devoted to family law cases.  If he could change one thing in the law, it would be the handling of family law matters. Huff does not feel that the adversarial system is always the best way to handle family law disputes.  Huff enjoys being a judge and considers it interesting and important work.

Unlike the other two judges in the Third Judicial District Court, Huff has been a lawyer and a judge for his entire adult life. 

JUDGE ROBERT ESTES

Judge Robert Estes’ Southern roots have influenced his life from the day he was born in Kansas City, 58 years ago, to the present.  The walls of his chambers in Yerington, Lyon County are adorned with Civil War memorabilia, drawings, photographs and watercolors.  On one wall are photos of General Ulysses S. Grant and of Nathaniel Lyon, a Union General killed at Wilson’s Creek in Springfield, Mo. in 1861.  Lyon County is named after that very same General Lyon.

Estes’ father Calvin Estes was a steel buyer for a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand that manufactured aircraft parts.  He passed away in 1991.  His mother Virginia Lee Sirrett was a true Southern lady, a wife and the mother of four children, three boys and one girl.  Estes’ eldest sister is a retired English and Drama teacher.  One of his younger brothers works in the art department of a photography studio and the other is a jeweler.

After graduating from Baxter Springs High School in Kansas, Estes spent six years in the Navy and the Naval Reserves.  He served as a corpsman and diver with classified duties that involved science.  He particularly loved diving and barbecuing the lobsters that he caught in the Pacific Ocean.  His work piqued his interest in science, and when he left the military in 1971 he attended Pittsburg State University in Kansas.  He graduated with a dual degree in chemistry and biology, as well as with a Masters of Science degree.

He worked as a chemist on mine reclamation and land redevelopment, converting coal mining areas into forest and pasture lands for the U.S. Government in Kansas.  In response to a notice about teaching school in Melbourne, Australia, he applied and taught high school chemistry and physics in Australia for three years.

He was motivated to move to Las Vegas because it sounded like an adventurous place to live.  This was before the city began to boom and construction had not yet begun on its multitude of massive hotels.  In fact, at the time, the MGM was the newest hotel in Las Vegas.  Estes taught chemistry at Valley High School from 1977 to 1984.  After a while he became disenchanted with the education system.  He felt that teachers were expected to award students with good grades even when they were not deserved.

He applied to medical school and was accepted, but felt he was too old to embark upon the necessary six-plus years required to earn the degree and complete the post-medical school training.  Instead, he applied to University of Kansas Law School and graduated in 1987.  From his first day in law school, he knew he wanted to finish his legal career as a judge.

His favorite professor, Francis Heller, taught Constitutional law.  Estes was impressed with his teacher’s breadth of knowledge regarding the law.  Heller had served on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff and was part of the legal team that wrote the Japanese constitution following World War II.  Estes particularly remembers their discussions about President Abraham Lincoln’s use of his powers under the constitution during the Civil War.

Estes points to three men as his heroes.  The first of these is his father, who he says had a logical approach to everything in his life and could do anything he set out to accomplish.  Second, Estes cites Judge Mario Recanzone, a man well-versed in the law who also set a fine example of ethical conduct.  Third is Gerald Gillock, the Las Vegas trial lawyer who taught Estes that the most important aspect of being a trial lawyer is preparation, preparation and preparation.

Estes practiced law in Las Vegas with Barker, Gillock and Perry, a full service civil law firm that emphasized insurance defense.  He moved to Yerington in February 1990 in order to gain trial experience.  Since there was a dearth of civil trials, criminal law offered more opportunities for trial work.  Additionally, he preferred the less crowded regions of Nevada where there was more room for horses and dogs. 

When a seat opened up in 1994, Estes, a republican, ran unopposed for district attorney of Lyon County.  He was also unopposed in 1998 when he ran for reelection.  He was elected to the bench in 2000 and resigned from his position as district attorney.  There were two other candidates in the race and following the primary, Estes won with nearly 60 percent of the vote in Churchill and Lyon counties.

He finds that his scientific background is an invaluable resource when deciding DNA cases.  He also uses his knowledge of physics in understanding certain civil matters.  His advice to young people intending to pursue law as a career is to take all the science, English and writing courses offered.  He says it is not without reason that law is called “the learned profession.”

Estes is impressed with lawyers who are honest.  When they make a statement to the court, he likes to know he can rely on that statement.  He feels that shading and evasive answers are the most damaging statements that can be made to a judge.  His pet peeves are pompous lawyers and those who behave in a condescending manner to opposing counsel. 

If he could change one thing about the legal system, he would have it hold attorneys and their clients more accountable for economic losses suffered by their opponents when they are unprepared, late or lackadaisical about reaching the conclusion to a lawsuit.

Estes is divorced and has a 25-year-old daughter named Sara.  She is currently enrolled in a two-year course at the Culinary Institute in New Orleans. She has a degree in history from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  During his off time, Estes enjoys golf, baseball and traveling to strange places with strange-sounding names. 

According to Estes, the best part about being a judge in the Third Judicial District is the great working relationships among those working in the courthouses.  He praises the staff as extremely competent.  Also, because the legal community is a small one, everyone knows everyone else.  For Estes, the worst part of the job is watching juveniles and their families disintegrate.