Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Natalie Tyrrell promised she wouldn’t become overcome with emotion.
But as she stood in a party to honor her final days on the North Las Vegas Justice Court, a home of sorts for over two decades, her word was put to the test.
“Serving this community has been the honor and privilege of my life,” Tyrrell said, surrounded by celebratory balloons and her “court family.” “I am so honored to have been elected by this community for 24 years.”
Tyrrell, 60, was elected at the turn of the century, running a campaign that took her to churches and community events, and channeled some of her “Minnesota nice” attitude she brought from her native state. As she left her celebration Wednesday afternoon, she parted with commemorative plaques, a judge Barbie doll and the legacy as the city’s first female judge. Her term ends Jan. 2.
“Sometimes people are not who they say they are,” said William McCurdy Sr., who supported Tyrrell from the early days of her bid for the bench. “But she’s been a woman of her word.” McCurdy’s son, William McCurdy II, serves on the Clark County Commission.
Tyrrell has served as a justice of the peace since 2001, assigned to 91,438 cases in a court that sets bail, issues search and arrest warrants, protective orders and hears misdemeanor and traffic trials, evictions and civil matters under $15,000.
Through those thousands of assigned cases, she said she always tried to be a familiar face in the North Las Vegas community, to hold an identity as someone who might not rule in the outcome that was desired, but did so fairly.
“The community component is so important,” Tyrrell said. “If you are an elected official and you don’t get out in the community, it just doesn’t work.”
It’s that desire for community involvement that drove her to create her hailing achievement as a judge: the “Kids in Court” outreach program. Since 2002, the court has partnered with C.P. Squires Elementary School, an “at-risk school” in the area, to teach students about possible careers in the court system, and how they can work toward them by staying in the education system.
Tyrrell said the youth were constantly on her mind because her son was 8 years old when she ran her campaign, and a conversation with the school’s principal at the time further piqued her interest.
“I said, ‘I have a vision,’” Tyrrell said, recalling the conversation. “She said, ‘Oh, my God, we would love to have you partner with our school. It doesn’t seem like our kids have a vision for their future, or like a dream of what they want to be.’”
Tyrrell has met thousands of fifth-graders through the program, sharing her story with them and then inviting them to the court to meet the staff and, eventually, participate in a mock trial. She said the presentations encourage the students to build on the skills they already possess, like being bilingual.
“The majority of the kids at C.P. Squires speak two languages, Spanish and English,” Tyrrell said. “And so we also let them know how important it is for them to exercise that, because that is something special that they have, that not everybody has.”
Being the first woman in the position didn’t come without its challenges, like people who didn’t believe she was up for the task.
“The biggest thing I’ve done to overcome that is to prove people wrong,” Tyrrell said. “If somebody is not treating me fairly or with respect, I’m going to try to kill them with kindness, and they’re going to see that I can do the job.”
In her time on the state’s second-busiest justice court, Tyrrell has seen North Las Vegas evolve by more than double the population. That growth was accompanied by new needs and she said the court adapted to meet them, like adding a pretrial risk assessment that went into statewide effect in 2019.
“We’re trying to get people out of custody with conditions until their hearing date, because honestly, I don’t want people to lose jobs,” Tyrrell said. “I don’t want people to lose employment if they are not such a danger to the community, and the indicators are there that they will come back to court. They should be released. I believe that.”
When Tyrrell’s term officially expires in January, she will remain involved in many of her existing commitments, like being a senior judge who will serve when called in and keeping her role as vice president of the American Judges Association.
She’s also leaving room for new adventures — starting with filling up her travel calendar and waiting for the weather to warm so she can visit family “back in cold, cold Minnesota.”
Outside of the courtroom, Tyrrell remains a judge — except she’s the kind who scores combat sports. Under the Nevada State Athletic Commission, she’s licensed as a professional boxing judge, and has evaluated amateur competitions for 10 years.
“Whenever I get an assignment. I just love it. It’s just fun for me,” Tyrrell said. “It’s a different outlook for me.”
When Tyrrell mentioned leaving her “court family” at Wednesday’s party, Susana Reyes was an integral part of that. Reyes has served as the judicial executive assistant to the retiring judge for around 20 years, watching their kids grow up simultaneously and carving space to attend Pitbull concerts together.
“She’s a wonderful person and a judge,” Reyes said. “She’s very fair. She’s always been loved by everybody that goes in front of her.”
While being a judge wasn’t in her mind as Tyrrell went through law school, she’s dedicated over two decades to it, and is optimistic about the footprint she leaves behind.
“We see a lot of people on a daily basis, but you can do that. You don’t have to rush through everything,” Tyrrell said. “People want to be heard. They want to have their day in court. And I believe that I have done that over all of these years, and I’m proud of being able to do that and to serve this community.”
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