Choices made for judicial vacancies

The Clark County Commission has selected two lawyers, including one who has worked as a temporary justice of the peace for the past decade, to fill vacancies on the Las Vegas Justice Court bench.

At its Tuesday meeting, the commission appointed Joseph Sciscento, 44, and Melanie Andress Tobiasson, 42, from a field of six finalists.

The two lawyers will fill positions vacated by Justices of the Peace Douglas Smith and Abbi Silver, who were elected to District Court seats last year.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said the new appointees will begin work "on or after July 1" and will receive an annual salary of $153,499. They must run in the 2010 election to retain their seats.

Andress Tobiasson has never run for office before but said she already had planned to run for justice of the peace in 2010.

"These positions became available at exactly the moment that I decided to run for office," she said.

Sciscento has worked in private practice in Las Vegas since 1991, when he received his law degree from the University of San Diego.

He initially focused on probate cases, wills and estate planning but has primarily handled criminal cases since 1995. He ran unsuccessfully for a Las Vegas Justice Court seat in 2004.

"I've been in Justice Court for the last 15 years probably almost every day," Sciscento said.

Andress Tobiasson, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, received her law degree in 1992 from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

She worked as a prosecutor at the Clark County district attorney's office from 1993 to 1998, when she became a stay-at-home mother. She has worked as a temporary justice of the peace for the past 10 years in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.

"My entire span of my legal career has been in Justice Court..." she said. "I'm really looking forward to being an integral part of Justice Court for a long time."

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.