Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday announced the appointment of a longtime prosecutor to fill a vacancy on the Clark County District Court.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Peter Thunell will fill the Department 26 seat vacated by District Judge Gloria Sturman, who retired last month. At the district attorney’s office, he has served as team chief of the special victims’ unit, which oversees a wide range of cases, including those involving the abuse of children and sexual assaults.
“Peter Thunell has spent the past 18 years as a dedicated public servant pursuing justice and protecting victims in our communities,” Lombardo said in a news release. “His courtroom experience, leadership within the District Attorney’s Office, and commitment to public safety make him well qualified to serve the people of Nevada on the bench.”
In order to hold onto his new seat, Thunell must make it through a June primary and win election in November. Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Jessica Goodey and State Bar of Nevada Counsel Daniel Hooge are also running for the position.
Thunell, 50, said in a Friday interview that he plans to officially take the bench in two weeks. He will hear civil cases, he said.
He practiced civil law briefly early in his career, he said, then began working for the district attorney’s office in 2008.
Thunell thinks his background as a prosecutor appealed to Lombardo. He wants to make sure that everyone involved in a case feels like they were heard and treated fairly, he said.
“You’ll hear that sometimes people say, ‘I feel like the justice system, it’s broken or it doesn’t work,’” he said. “And I really want people to understand the concern, the interest that I have in their cases, whether it be civil or criminal. I’m invested and I want to know and I want to make sure the right thing happens.”
Thunell, who is from Fort Collins, Colorado, received his undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University and went to the University of Utah for law school.
Before the law called him, Thunell had a career in print journalism. He worked at the Deseret News after college, covering feature stories.
He still misses reporting sometimes, he said, but the experience helped him in his legal career, because his journalism job required him to talk to people and find stories, skills applicable to a prosecutor’s role gathering information.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Thunell has been “an outstanding prosecutor and leader.”
“His experience in the courtroom, his respect for the law, and his commitment to doing justice the right way make him exceptionally well qualified to serve on the District Court bench,” he said in a news release from Thunell’s campaign. “While we will miss his leadership in the District Attorney’s Office, I have no doubt he will serve the people of Clark County with fairness, integrity, and professionalism.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
