Nevada is renowned for a history of gambling, a desert landscape serving as a mafia burial ground…and now for a judge called Wanker.
Kim Wanker is currently standing for election — the Yanks like to bring democracy to bear on their local benches — in department 1 of Nevada’s Fifth Judicial Court.
It’s the first time Nevadans will have had the pleasure of seeing the Wanker name on election hoardings, as the judge was initially appointed to the post when her predecessor — the banally named Judge John P Davis — dropped off his perch (or indeed the bench) in 2011.
Judge Wanker’s website reveals the extraordinary personal information that she prefers to be called simply ‘Kim’ outside the courtroom, having presumably been informed by some British friends/colleagues/punters down the casino that the surname is rather unique. Indeed, see the YouTube clip below for an example of how local broadcasters perform verbal gymnastics with the name.
Schoolboy joking aside, Judge Wanker deserves recognition for being the first female judge in rural Nevada, a part of the US where women are normally confined to jobs requiring short skirts, high heels and an ability to balance a tray of drinks while dodging the advances of drunken gamblers.
Originally from Nebraska, before rising to the bench Judge Wanker was qualified to practise law in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. She’s a keen go-karter, enjoys motorcar racing, car restoration, road and mountain biking, boating and wakeboarding.
Despite her name, Kim Wanker is known as the “no nonsense judge”; for those keen to keep an eye on her electoral fortunes, polling day is scheduled for November.