Biographical Statement

Justice of the Peace Kevin Higgins was appointed to the Sparks Justice Court on April 15, 2003. He fills the position vacated by Paul Freitag who retired. Judge Higgins immediately entered the Limited Jurisdiction class at the National Judicial College, graduated, and sat for the first time as a judge on May 9, 2003.

Judge Higgins comes to the bench from the Nevada Attorney General’s Office after 16 years as a prosecutor. At the time of his appointment he was the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the Reno Office, the Director of the Workers Compensation Fraud Unit, and Counsel to the High Tech Crimes Advisory Board. He had previously served as the AG’s liaison to the Legislature and had been the acting Chief Financial Officer during the budget preparation cycle. During his tenure at the AG, he prosecuted everything from DUI’s to death penalty cases and has appeared in almost every District Court in Nevada, the Nevada Supreme Court, the United States District Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Higgins was directly responsible for the creation of the Nevada High Technology Crimes Task Force and has lectured across the country on Internet fraud and other high tech crimes. He drafted and worked for the passage of numerous laws in Nevada criminalizing the use of computers to lure children, anti-spam legislation, and various forms of on-line theft and fraud. He is a frequent public speaker and presenter and has taught on the application of the Fourth Amendment to computer crimes for the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Nevada District Attorneys Association, the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association, and numerous other law enforcement organizations. For the last 14 years he has presented a review of the Nevada Supreme Court criminal cases at the annual meeting of the Nevada District Court Judges Association.

Since his appointment to the bench, Judge Higgins has joined the Nevada Judges of Limited Jurisdiction, the American Judges Association, and the American Judicature Society. He has already attended several classes at the National Judicial College.

Judge Higgins sits on the national scholarship selection panel for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. In 2001 he was presented the Joseph Stevens Award as the outstanding attorney in public service in the United States in a ceremony at the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Higgins graduated from Willamette University in 1982 and was awarded the ‘Senior Key,’ presented to the 10 seniors who had contributed the most to the University. In 1985 he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with his Juris Doctorate.