New judge takes the bench in San Luis
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Yuma attorney Nohemy Echavarria will begin her duties as the new municipal judge in San Luis on Aug. 27.
The San Luis City Council recently approved a two-year contract with the Yuma native to fill the post that has been vacant since April when then-Judge Kristin McManus resigned.
“It is an honor that they have chosen me for the post of judge from among various candidates, all of them very qualified..”
Echavarria, who lived in San Luis for two years in her childhood, joined the Yuma County Public Defenders Office five years ago after graduating from the Phoenix School of Law, now the Arizona Summit Law School. Earlier this year she opened her own law practice in Yuma.
“One of the reasons that I have wanted to be an attorney since childhood is social service. In the public defenders office there is always a lot work taking care of people who don’t have a way to pay for an attorney. That also gave a lot of knowledge about the system and how the courts and judges operate, and that is something that will help me a lot in the court in San Luis, which one of the busiest ones.”
A graduate of Cibola High School and Arizona Western College, Echavarria is bilingual. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and criminal justice from Northern Arizona University and a master’s in business from the University of Phoenix, and she believes that background will be useful in her new role.
“I am prepared to work with budgets, I know the language and the culture of the people,” she said. “I know that a lot of people in San Luis don’t speak English and that fact that I know the language will be important. I know that many of them are farmworkers, and I know what that’s like because I lived in the same situation – my mother was a farmworker.”
She said she believes that background will help her identify with the public and “facilitate the task of the judge to help the people believe in the legal system.”
Echavarria will receive an annual salary of $85,000, under the contract approved unanimously by the council.
Having opened her own practice earlier this year, Echavarria says she is now closing it, so she can dedicate full time to being municipal judge.