Walker shifted to new district court

Governor makes appointment

Gov. Brian Sandoval has appointed Egan Walker—up to now an elected district court judge in the family division—to be a district court judge replacing the late Judge Patrick Flanagan. Both posts are in the second [Washoe] judicial district.

“Judge Walker is an experienced and seasoned judge who has presided over thousands of cases in Washoe County,” Sandoval said in a prepared statement.

Walker has a nursing degree from the University of Nevada, Reno and a law degree from McGeorge. He previously served as a deputy district attorney in Carson City and Washoe County.

In 2012, Walker was involved in a high-profile dispute over whether he would require a 32-year-old mentally disabled woman whose health was endangered by her pregnancy to have an abortion. The woman’s parents went to court to try to prevent him from holding hearings on the matter, and the issue was publicized by anti-abortion groups around the nation. The courtd ruled against the parents, and Walker found there was no compelling medical reason for the abortion.

Earlier in his career, Walker was involved in a July 11, 1996 drinking incident in which deputy DAs Walker and Cheryl Hier-Johnson and Officer John Bohach were involved. Walker disabled the on-call vehicle of the DA’s office, urinated in a police officer’s thermos, and let the air out of tires. When the incident was discovered some time later, Richard Gammick—then district attorney—said Walker and Hier-Johnson were forthcoming and cooperative. He suspended them instead of firing them. In an action brought by the state attorney general, the three participants were fined $425 each.

As an attorney, Walker once represented the mother of murder victim Charla Mack. He is or has been a board member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Children’s Cabinet.