Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman and former Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley are among 10 appointed by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak to the new Board on Indigent Defense Services.
“I am excited to announce that I’ve made ten appointments to the new Board of Indigent Defense Services, which will provide needed oversight of legal defense for those who cannot afford lawyers,” Sisolak said in a statement this week. “Indigent defense has gotten short shrift in Nevada for far too long, and I am thrilled to see that we will finally be adopting consistent standards and regulations to protect defendants’ constitutional right to receive fair and competent legal representation.”
The board, which was created by Assembly Bill 81 this past legislative session, will create standards for the delivery of indigent services and representation throughout the state and will oversee the state Department of Indigent Services, the governor’s office said.
The board consists of 13 voting members and up to three non-voting members, who are each appointed to three-year terms.
The board represents appointees throughout the Silver State with members who live in Nye, Carson City, Elko, Humboldt, Washoe and Clark counties.
In addition to his appointments to the board, the governor also announced that Marcie Ryba has been hired as the executive director of the state Department of Indigent Services.
Wichman, of the Round Mountain region, first was elected a Nye County commissioner in 2008.
Eastley, of Tonopah, was a Nye County commissioner for three terms, serving through 2012.
Before becoming a Nye County commissioner, she spent 14 years working in the mining industry in various human resources positions, a biography states.
Among another service, it lists her as being a longtime member of the Tonopah Rotary Club and serving on the boards of the Rural Nevada Development Corporation, Preserve Nevada, Friends of the Belmont Courthouse and the Tonopah Development Corporation.