Kristi Egger, who retired this month after 32 years as an attorney in the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office, is running for the top spot.
Kristi Egger, 2022 candidate for Lancaster County Public Defender.Â
COURTESY PHOTO
Egger, who filed Wednesday as a candidate for Lancaster County Public Defender, said she decided it was the right time to run.
Joe Nigro, who has served two terms as public defender, has not officially announced whether he plans to run for reelection, although he has a campaign kickoff event scheduled in February.
Both Egger and Nigro are Democrats.
Egger, who worked for a year in the Hall County Public Defender’s office before moving to Lancaster County, said she thinks it’s time a woman be considered for the office, and the county needs a public defender who's in the office and spends time in the courtroom.
She said she has worked on all kinds of cases during her career and has the abilities needed to run the office effectively.
“I would be someone who would go to court, take cases and handle cases,†she said. “I would be in the office and able to answer questions of staff and attorneys. I’d actually be there to supervise.â€
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She said it’s important for the public defender to be in court regularly to understand the issues that arise when defending cases and that’s not happening now.Â
Egger said she has a passion for mental health cases and that more needs to be done to find alternatives to incarceration for the mentally ill and substance dependent.
She said she also would review the system in place to decide how cases are assigned in the office to reduce the number that have to be handled by private attorneys, which would save taxpayers money.Â
The Lancaster County Public Defender’s office was created in the early 1970s, and T. Clement Gaughan became the first elected public defender in 1974. He held the office until 1978, when Dennis Keefe was elected. When Keefe retired, Nigro was elected.
Egger said diversity is important, and it’s important to have more women in offices of power.
“We should have been there from the beginning — we’re more than 50% of the population,†she said. “So it seems to me I’m just as capable as any man who’s been a public defender, and we need to be getting ourselves into those positions of power.â€
Egger is a lifelong Nebraskan who grew up between Firth and Hickman and graduated from Norris Public Schools, then from the University of Nebraska College of Law. She clerked at the Lancaster County Public Defender’s office while in law school, before going to Hall County for a year.
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Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com .
On Twitter @LJSreist
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