Two new DAs hired in Lyon County

Two new attorneys have been hired on at the Lyon County District Attorney's Office, District Attorney Bob Auer announced this week.

Nia Wooliscroft, a Santa Clara University School of Law graduate, will be handling juvenile crimes, which makes up 32 percent of the office's caseload, said Assistant District Attorney Mark Krueger.

Wooliscroft graduated with summa cum laude honors from Notre Dame de Namur

University in Belmont, Calif., with a Bachelor of Arts in communications and a Bachelor of Science in finance. She was also Academic All-American Award while at Notre Dame.

Woolliscroft obtained her juris doctorate from Santa Clara University school of Law where she focused upon criminal law and trial practice.

Prior to joining the district attorney's office, she clerked with the Honorable David A. Huff of the Third Judicial District Court.

Joseph Reynolds, a Gonzaga University School of Law graduate, will be handling appeals and Walker River Justice Court for the district attorney's office.

Reynolds earned his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his juris doctorate from Gonzaga University School of Law.

He began his legal experience as a law clerk to now-retired Nevada Supreme Court Justice C. Clifton Young and he served two years as a legal intern for the United States Attorney's Office where he prosecuted criminal misdemeanors and assisted in a murder trial, said Krueger.

Reynolds also served as an attorney for the Nevada Supreme Court where he worked in the criminal division assisting the Supreme Court in reviewing appeals and original writ petitions.

He is one of a few attorneys at the Supreme Court to review death penalty appeals, Krueger said.

Reynolds also worked as a deputy attorney general for the Nevada Attorney General's Office where he primarily represented the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

"Hiring these attorneys together " Woolliscroft with her energy and desire to learn and Reynolds with his criminal experience " the district attorney's office has fulfilled two goals: We have provided new expertise to the office and we have kept the office well within our current budget ... in these difficult economic times," said Auer.

Wooliscroft and Reynolds fill spots left vacant by two outgoing deputy district attorneys and will work primarily out of the Yerington office.

Krueger said that in 2007 Lyon County District Attorney Auer and his six deputy attorneys handled 2,692 criminal cases, a number which does not include citations or probation and status hearings.

Eight hundred and seventy-one of those cases were juvenile cases.

Lyon County has an estimated population of 56,000 people.

Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.