Eureka to host full-time federal judge

Nandor Vadas to be assigned all new federal cases in region

Humboldt Sentinel staff
8/13/09

San Francisco

A five-year part-time veteran of the federal bench has been elevated to a new full-time position to cover all new civil and criminal federal actions on the North Coast.

Nandor Vadas, who served as the part-time United States magistrate judge in Eureka since July 2004, has taken a lead role in expanding the services offered by the local federal court, including an innovative early settlement program for prisoner civil rights cases brought by unrepresented prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison. The success of the prisoner civil rights early settlement program at Pelican Bay led to its expansion to all state prisons in the Northern District of California and to some prisons in the Eastern District of California, according to a release from Rich Wieking, Clerk of Court for the US District Court for Northern California.

As the first full-time magistrate to be seated in Eureka, Vadas will be directly assigned all new civil and criminal actions arising in Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte and Trinity Counties.

Vadas previously served as a Deputy District Attorney for Humboldt County, concurrently serving as Special Assistant US Attorney for the region. In this role he prosecuted all federal misdemeanor cases and also investigated federal drug and money laundering crimes. He has also taught criminal justice courses at the Redwood Police Academy of College of the Redwoods.

Magistrate Judge Vadas graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz and Hastings College of the Law and served as a Deputy DA for San Francisco County from 1983‐1989, after which he moved to the federal system and began a lengthy period of service as an Assistant US Attorney in San Francisco from 1989‐1998.